Speaker 1: Warning, Today's episode contains spoilers for Alien Romulus in theaters now,
Speaker 1: so if you haven't seen it, let's see it then listen. Suit. Hello,
Speaker 1: my name is Jason and I'm Merday Night and welcome
Speaker 1: back the Extra Vision of podcast where we dive deep.
Speaker 1: It's your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture coming
Speaker 1: to you from our podcasts where we're bringing you to
Speaker 1: action packed episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.
Speaker 2: In today's action Packed episode, previously on, there is news, news, news,
Speaker 2: the Acolytes been casting, rip to that show black Smith
Speaker 2: Wukong is here and shadd James Streemis, shadd those steam records,
Speaker 2: borderlines for trailer, secret level trailer, some sad news from
Speaker 2: the world of anime, and a new date for Marvel Rivals.
Speaker 2: There's all kinds of news and we're getting into it.
Speaker 2: In the airlock, we are breaking down Alien Romulus, Fede
Speaker 2: Alvarez's box office smash hit, So if you haven't listened,
Speaker 2: make sure you go back. I watched that movie before
Speaker 2: you come in here because it's gonna be all spoilers.
Speaker 2: And then we have a special guest star as Jason
Speaker 2: interviews one of the fantastic stars of Alien Romulus Aileen lou.
Speaker 1: Up next. Previously on Well, folks, we woke up to
Speaker 1: some crazy news this morning. The Acolyte has been canceled.
Speaker 1: There will be no season two. This is reported by
Speaker 1: all the trades, Deadline, forty, et cetera. The show ended
Speaker 1: up with a seventy eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But
Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say there was some divisions.
Speaker 1: It was certainly divisive in terms of ratings. It was
Speaker 1: the worst performing Star Wars show. Now, a quick note
Speaker 1: about ratings. It's impossible to get accurate streaming ratings from
Speaker 1: any of the streamers, so here you're kind of, uh,
Speaker 1: We're always going to be referencing either Nielsen data or
Speaker 1: Illuminate Data, some third party data site. And the thing
Speaker 1: is their formulas are all different and have a lot
Speaker 1: to do with like engagement in social media. The streamers
Speaker 1: themselves would say that's not accurate. That aside, it certainly
Speaker 1: appears that The Ecolyte was in terms of watches, in
Speaker 1: terms of ratings, the worst performing and fell off over
Speaker 1: the course of the series. And that is, you know,
Speaker 1: in addition to the pretty toxic conversation around the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was hammered.
Speaker 2: I definitely feel like we obviously can't know what's going
Speaker 2: on in an exact mind, but I do feel like
Speaker 2: this was surprising to me because you know the surprised.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: The show had a very passionate fandom that loved it,
Speaker 2: and it also was a conversation driver in a way
Speaker 2: I think Disney has been seeking for their shows. That
Speaker 2: hasn't necessarily happened this year. But as you say, it
Speaker 2: was very divisive. I would hope that this is not,
Speaker 2: you know, a case where they're listening to the most
Speaker 2: negative parts of the fandom and choosing to cancel a
Speaker 2: show based on that. I would say something we need
Speaker 2: to notice. The show was incredibly expensive. It was one
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty million dollars apparently according to Disney, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, like that's all that's a Disney problem.
Speaker 2: Like if you want to make the show for less money,
Speaker 2: give them less money. Like if you don't have the
Speaker 2: money to make one hundred and eighty million dollar show,
Speaker 2: which I know you do, Disney, then don't give it
Speaker 2: to them, you know, like, let's let's plan ahead. But
Speaker 2: I think there was so much more to come from this.
Speaker 2: I also will say this is all rumors, of course,
Speaker 2: but the Internet has noticed some interesting choices, which are
Speaker 2: like they had Manny Jacinto at D twenty three like
Speaker 2: a week ago, and they had a thirty foot projected
Speaker 2: image of him on the wall that people could take
Speaker 2: pictures with, which I've heard was very popular because who
Speaker 2: didn't love crime here. They also then canceled the show
Speaker 2: on his birthday. Seems thoughtless if this was always going
Speaker 2: to be the case. Maybe we're looking at a situation
Speaker 2: here where there's no Acolyte season two, but we will
Speaker 2: see these characters and stories be continued in a high
Speaker 2: republic style movie or something.
Speaker 1: That would not surprise me. I think this is in
Speaker 1: certain specs. It's not surprising because of the ratings. I
Speaker 1: think if if the viewership was there, then you could
Speaker 1: they could shrug off the conversation. And I think more broadly,
Speaker 1: Star Wars is kind of in a weird spot right
Speaker 1: now where they are beholds into nostalgia in a way
Speaker 1: that no other ip really is. They're caught between a
Speaker 1: segment of the fan base that wants Star Wars the
Speaker 1: way it has always been delivered to them. Now, I
Speaker 1: think that the way that that that picture of a
Speaker 1: nostalgic Star Wars is a myth in large part, uh,
Speaker 1: and I think allies the content of the original trilogy
Speaker 1: in a large way. That said, I it's it's a
Speaker 1: tough spot because if you innovate, if you do something
Speaker 1: interesting people, there's going to be a segment of the
Speaker 1: fan base that absolutely hates it. And then if you
Speaker 1: do the same old Star Wars stuff, you're really not
Speaker 1: evolving the IP or doing anything that might bring in
Speaker 1: more fans exactly and keep the community vibrant. So it's
Speaker 1: just a tough spot and definitely a bummer.
Speaker 2: Also interesting that they just straight up canceled it rather
Speaker 2: than leaving it in kind of you know, limbo, like
Speaker 2: a lot of these shows and movies end up being
Speaker 2: like it's very rare for them to just be like
Speaker 2: this is over, Like it's not happening, it's canceled. So
Speaker 2: I think that's very interesting. Apparently there is rumors that
Speaker 2: they had started working on season two, and that's why
Speaker 2: they have to say it was canceled because Season two
Speaker 2: kind of already existed. I will say one thing, our
Speaker 2: discord is absolutely bummed. They were big Acolyte fans in there,
Speaker 2: so sending love to the discord today, and I understand.
Speaker 2: I hope we will get to see these stories and
Speaker 2: themes and characters continued, because in the age of streaming
Speaker 2: we live in now, stuff gets canceled so quickly. And
Speaker 2: there's definitely been a lot of hilarious memes like the
Speaker 2: Clone Wars never would have made it past you know,
Speaker 2: season one in this era, so it's like.
Speaker 1: That's maybe true. Although I will say animated Flies under
Speaker 1: the Radar continues incredibly influential. I think, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is probably primarily responsible for keeping people in touch with
Speaker 1: Star Wars and growing new audience. But it's also like
Speaker 1: something that the nostalgia heads, the hardcore nostalgia peeps, I
Speaker 1: think broadly.
Speaker 2: Ignore, yeah, the most part.
Speaker 1: Next up, there is a new hit video game, and
Speaker 1: it is Black Myth Wukan. The game has already become
Speaker 1: in its short life as a release, has already become
Speaker 1: the second most played game on scheme with why two
Speaker 1: and a half million concurrent players behind PUBG still doing
Speaker 1: it by way, PUBJ still.
Speaker 2: Doing it, still doing it, basically.
Speaker 1: Still doing it now Steam numbers. Of course, we're not
Speaker 1: taking to account players using the Epic Game Store, which
Speaker 1: is platform or playing on PS five, which is wild
Speaker 1: separate ecosystem. This a game from a Chinese developer, has
Speaker 1: had some controversy around it related to an email they
Speaker 1: sent around to influencers as they were kind of like
Speaker 1: ginning up excitement for the game, basically saying don't mention
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen, we get it okay, but also no quote,
Speaker 1: no feminist propaganda, which is interesting. Sure that said blackmith Willkon.
Speaker 1: It's the gameplay looks pretty crazy, the bosses look incredibly huge,
Speaker 1: and this game looks to be a juggernaut in the making.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the truth is, like I do deeply loved
Speaker 2: Journey to the West and like the Monkey.
Speaker 1: King Wukan is the main character and Journey to the West,
Speaker 1: which is huge hit in China and much of Asia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's like it's a it's a it's like
Speaker 2: a sixteenth century Chinese novel that basically a lot of
Speaker 2: people think it created the hero's journey. If you're watching
Speaker 2: something like Avatar the Last Airbender, you're really watching something
Speaker 2: that's very influenced by Journey to the West. So I
Speaker 2: do think this is really interesting. The CEO of the
Speaker 2: game company, who said, now that email he is. You know,
Speaker 2: he has said some wild things in the past, but
Speaker 2: sometimes you just gotta ignore it and just look at
Speaker 2: a game. So it'll be interesting to see and I'm
Speaker 2: interested to play this. I'm interested if any of our
Speaker 2: our discord users are playing it, because the reviews are
Speaker 2: pretty crazy. People say it's just a total whirlwind and
Speaker 2: kind of a bit of an unexpected smash. I think.
Speaker 1: Next up more video game stuff. Borderland's four has released
Speaker 1: a teaser trailer. Not much that no gameplay, but I'm
Speaker 1: excited on the less as a fan of the Venerable
Speaker 1: Borderlands looter shooter franchise, I do enjoy some Borderlands.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is really great. I think I've been very
Speaker 2: impressed with the Boardlands guy who was like, hey, you
Speaker 2: love the game so much that you hated this bad movie.
Speaker 2: Guess what, Bordlands four Finally it's finally coming out. He
Speaker 2: was like, how can I turn this to my favor?
Speaker 2: He's like, I didn't spend one hundred and ten million
Speaker 2: dollars making this movie. But the reason people hate the
Speaker 2: movie is because they love the games. So guess what,
Speaker 2: Baby Boardlands for trailer They could not get that out
Speaker 2: quick enough, and I respect it.
Speaker 1: More kind of video video games adjacent video games adjacent.
Speaker 1: The trailer for Secret Level on Amazon Prime Videos this
Speaker 1: is wild. This comes from the creative team behind Love,
Speaker 1: Death and Robots, which, if you were a fan of Love,
Speaker 1: Death and Robots on Netflix, this looks to be for you.
Speaker 1: And it's an anthology series with each episode based around
Speaker 1: a different game slash video game franchise, including Dungeons and Dragons,
Speaker 1: Honor of Kings, Mega Man, pac Man, Warhammer, Warhammer forty
Speaker 1: K So uh looks pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I also feel like Secret Level is the correct
Speaker 2: name because the way that they kept this under wraps
Speaker 2: until now is kind of super impressive when you have
Speaker 2: something as broad as like pac Man and Outer Worlds,
Speaker 2: you know, God of War episode as an Armored Corps.
Speaker 2: So I'm extremely interested to see how this lands because
Speaker 2: I do think that the way the IP is being
Speaker 2: used right now, like with this Star Wars stuff, right like,
Speaker 2: you invest all this money into one show and if
Speaker 2: it doesn't work, then you know you're fucked, basically, So
Speaker 2: I do think this idea of more like anthology ips
Speaker 2: where you try stuff out and see what works and
Speaker 2: see what people are drawn to. That feels like it's
Speaker 2: quite could be a war for the future kind of
Speaker 2: of what these companies are gonna do. Apparently looks like
Speaker 2: Keanu Reeves is going to be involved, which you know,
Speaker 2: always a good thing. We love to see him.
Speaker 1: Marv rivals. We have a release dates. What are you
Speaker 1: doing for the holiday season? I don't what I'll be
Speaker 1: doing playing December four, it's gonna be free to play,
Speaker 1: which means you're gonna pay for those skins.
Speaker 2: Folks, Baby, are you ready to pay for Captain America?
Speaker 2: Is a Nazi skin? Or ever hide your cat? They
Speaker 2: gonna be chotching you five dollars for that. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it looks good. It looks like an Overwatch reskin, which
Speaker 2: we always knew it would do. Side I'm like, let me,
Speaker 2: let me just let me just kill some I mean,
Speaker 2: let me just battle some people in the guise of
Speaker 2: a character I enjoy.
Speaker 1: Looks great. I can't wait to get in there with you.
Speaker 1: Rosie problems, because a.
Speaker 2: Lot of problems.
Speaker 1: Next up new Megalopolis trailer, which is notable for this
Speaker 1: Megalopolis of course. The Francis Ford Coppola latest Francis Ford
Speaker 1: Coppola movie that that famously features a part of the
Speaker 1: movie in which a actor has to come out and address
Speaker 1: the screen. I don't know how they're gonna do this
Speaker 1: and wide release. That said, here's what was notable to
Speaker 1: me about this trailer. The trailer opens and I've never
Speaker 1: seen this before. The trailer opens with a basically Francis
Speaker 1: Ford Coppol's resume starting oh yeah, Father, and and a
Speaker 1: like review from when that movie was released to listen
Speaker 1: to nineteen seventy two The Godfather, and then some pan
Speaker 1: yeah the movie nineteen seventy nine Apocalypse. Now, Rex Reid says,
Speaker 1: and irredeemable piece of trash.
Speaker 2: This man is so stressed.
Speaker 1: Never seen this before. This guy he's been and France
Speaker 1: is basically saying it. And people are gonna shoo on
Speaker 1: this fucking movie, like the critic is gonna shoot on
Speaker 1: it before it's released, and guess what, they're wrong.
Speaker 2: He's still gonna be great. Dude. This man is absolutely wild.
Speaker 2: I feel like this is especially.
Speaker 3: Fiery after all these kind of like on set issues
Speaker 3: about he's been, like videos of him like kissing extras
Speaker 3: and saying like I'm getting them into the party.
Speaker 2: Mood baby like if I don't love that, so I
Speaker 2: feel like he's on a he's on a train to
Speaker 2: Frants for Coppola Land. Then it's maybe it's gonna crash.
Speaker 2: Maybe he's gonna make it there and make a billion dollars.
Speaker 2: Who knows. It's absolutely bonkers, this tray Lie. I couldn't
Speaker 2: believe he did it.
Speaker 1: Uh well. The film has a crack ensemble cast, including
Speaker 1: Adam Driver, giancarlois Posito, Natalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shila Buff,
Speaker 1: the disgraced Shilah Buff, everybody's favorite Hollywood right wing conservatives
Speaker 1: On Voight, Laurence Fishburg, Tylie Shier, Jesus Schwartzman.
Speaker 4: And more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe Aubrey Plaza, which just absolutely bonkers, just
Speaker 2: like completely wild. Chloe Feynman from SNL, Yeah, sure love it.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: That's the of the Warriors Fame and other great features
Speaker 1: fam Tebe Sweeney. Yeah, Dustin Hoffman, he's there with his nephew, Grace.
Speaker 2: Vanderwall, who I believe was on American Idol. Crazy, that's truly,
Speaker 2: I mean, who knows what this movie is gonna be? Like,
Speaker 2: this is gonna be absolutely Boncaus. Also, I just want
Speaker 2: to say, this is a Lionsgate movie, right, This is
Speaker 2: Lionsgate is doing some wild releases this year because lions
Speaker 2: Gate is also buying The Crow, which we will talk
Speaker 2: about another date. But I feel like who's out here
Speaker 2: doing it? Like Lionsgate. They're putting the wildest stuff out
Speaker 2: right now. And they picked up Cosmopolis and they're gonna
Speaker 2: be making some kids come out from behind the popcorn
Speaker 2: desk and speak to Adam Driver on that big screen.
Speaker 2: I believe it.
Speaker 1: And then finally Sad News goes to the shell and bayonet.
Speaker 1: A voice actress at Suko Tanaka has passed at age
Speaker 1: sixty one, whiches so young? Uh thoughts and to her
Speaker 1: family and.
Speaker 2: Ye very just a huge kind of beacon in the
Speaker 2: in the voice acting space.
Speaker 1: And yeah, folks, let's jump out of your sternum, oh
Speaker 1: like in like a freshly hatched alien to talk about
Speaker 1: alien robins. Up next, we're stepping out of the air
Speaker 1: lock to discuss alien romulus in theaters.
Speaker 2: Now, Roses big hit, Baby.
Speaker 1: It's a huge all around the world.
Speaker 2: People are enjoying it, people are feeling it, people are
Speaker 2: loving it, people are having conversations about which is exactly
Speaker 2: what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: Well, Rosie, I'll start. I like this movie. This is
Speaker 1: a fun this is a fun movie, A good prequel.
Speaker 2: I believe. I believe they're calling it an intquel now
Speaker 2: because it's between alien and aliens.
Speaker 1: A delightful interquol.
Speaker 2: I'd never heard of that phrase before this week, but
Speaker 2: there it is.
Speaker 1: I love the practical effects. I love the more of
Speaker 1: a starring role for the face huggers, which was oh
Speaker 1: yeah fun.
Speaker 2: The animatronics Animore very impressive, very scary.
Speaker 1: Was great, and I really enjoyed David Johnson as as Andy.
Speaker 2: That was the breakout.
Speaker 1: Officials agreed, what did you think of the film?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I Fedda has Eddy Alva
Speaker 2: as the director has made stuff that I really like,
Speaker 2: like beebdev movies, made stuff that I like a little
Speaker 2: bit less, like don't Breathe but visual and don't Breathe
Speaker 2: too ooh. But the vision that he had for this movie,
Speaker 2: the aesthetic of the movie, I think it's really.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: I think it's nice to be back in the world
Speaker 2: of alien that you can kind of deeply immediately recognize.
Speaker 2: It's grubby, it's gross, it's dark. You're on a mining colony,
Speaker 2: you want to get out, you're a blue collar worker,
Speaker 2: and you're going to be stopped by an alien. It's
Speaker 2: incredibly bleak in a way that I think Edde does well.
Speaker 2: I really liked it in the cinema. I think it's
Speaker 2: a very enjoyable movie experience. Also, I have like a
Speaker 2: cannon of movies and TV shows where like I will
Speaker 2: forgive a lot of stuff if it's just like a
Speaker 2: bunch of kids trying to get stuff done. So I'm like,
Speaker 2: this is in the I would dive my children cannon.
Speaker 2: Apart from Bjorn, I'm glad he died, but otherwise I
Speaker 2: would be there. I would have been there fighting alongside Anna. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I thought I definitely David Johnson as Andy, I think
Speaker 2: is if he wasn't in this movie, I do not
Speaker 2: think the reviews would be as good because I think
Speaker 2: the one thing this script does really well that's very
Speaker 2: interesting is it explores the notion of being a synthetic
Speaker 2: in the alien world and what that means and how
Speaker 2: much agency you have. And David Johnson gets to play
Speaker 2: two different roles that are really really powerful, and one
Speaker 2: of them is really scary and the other is really
Speaker 2: kind of melancholic, and I just think he does such
Speaker 2: an incredible job. Kaylee Spenny, she's great. She's a great
Speaker 2: action e lead. She's she's got her muscles out. She
Speaker 2: can hold he you know, a pulse rifle. I think
Speaker 2: that there was some character actors here who were slightly wasted.
Speaker 2: Isabella McCard from the beloved smash hit family movie Madam Webb. Yeah,
Speaker 2: who is about to behold Go?
Speaker 1: Well, let's quickly recap the film and then get into
Speaker 1: a kind of deeper discussion. We're going to recap this
Speaker 1: off the top of our heads. So we open on
Speaker 1: a corporate planet that's basically all about mining and scavenging
Speaker 1: a whalean Utani planet where you have to hit a
Speaker 1: certain quota of I guess scavenge or hours or currency.
Speaker 1: It's unclear what the number is, but you have to
Speaker 1: hit this number before you're allowed to leave. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of like the old school, like owing your life
Speaker 1: to the company's store type of situation of like the
Speaker 1: late nineteenth early twentieth century Industrial Revolution type thing, and.
Speaker 2: If they need more workers, they will just extend your time,
Speaker 2: right so there's no it's not fair whalen Utani. This
Speaker 2: is the ultimate like working class factory town where people
Speaker 2: just dying from being in the mind from Black Lung.
Speaker 1: There's like two thousands, about two thousand people live there
Speaker 1: in total, and part of that population is our main cast.
Speaker 1: There is Rain played by Kaylee Spainey. There is Andy,
Speaker 1: her artificial person brother, a gift from her father who
Speaker 1: has passed away in the minds we believe.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh. There is Tyler, who is I believe Rain's ex right.
Speaker 2: It feels like the coding there is that he is
Speaker 2: her ex.
Speaker 1: Yeah. There is kay who is pregnant with a baby
Speaker 1: of unknown providence. We will discuss this play by further length.
Speaker 2: Isabella Mcott who is going to be Hawk Girl in
Speaker 2: the James Gun of Us and who was recently Ranya
Speaker 2: and Madame Webb.
Speaker 1: Las and then there is Bjorn played by Spike Fearn
Speaker 1: Oh boo, I hate good acting Spike, and Alien Wu
Speaker 1: plays Navarro. Yes, we'll be stay tuned for Alien Wu interview.
Speaker 1: And basically they hit upon a scheme by which they
Speaker 1: can leave the planet by taking their their like Junker
Speaker 1: scavenger craft and outfitting it with enough cryo fuel to
Speaker 1: power the the cryo chambers so that they can go
Speaker 1: into hibernation for a nine year trip to a planet
Speaker 1: where the sun actually shines, because on this planet it's
Speaker 1: raining all the time and it sucks. And the only
Speaker 1: way they can do that is by getting enough cryo
Speaker 1: fuel to make the trip.
Speaker 2: And keep the described for like nine years.
Speaker 1: For nine years, and they've discovered that there is like
Speaker 1: a wrecked Whyland Utahani space station that's just kind of
Speaker 1: like floating right above the planet, so they go up
Speaker 1: there turns out to be a research facility, and it
Speaker 1: turns out this research facility is like chock a block
Speaker 1: with face huggers and other aliens and a more research.
Speaker 1: There's like a decommission destroyed artificial person there played by
Speaker 1: a beyond life ian home and long story short, the
Speaker 1: aliens come out, Everybody except for Rain gets killed. She
Speaker 1: ultimately defeats the alien. The final boss alien turns out
Speaker 1: to be a hybrid alien human baby that gives birth
Speaker 1: to is really scary, and now with enough cryo fuel
Speaker 1: to make the trip, she leaves her last log, puts
Speaker 1: Andy in the hibernation chamber, puts herself in the hibernation
Speaker 1: chamber and heads for the new planet. Okay, you kind
Speaker 1: of hit on it in your statement up top. I
Speaker 1: do think and this is my one nitpick. Here's my nitpick.
Speaker 1: I love everything about this movie. I love the face huggers.
Speaker 1: I love the practical effects. I think that looks as
Speaker 1: it looks astoundingly good. The cast is wonderful. I do
Speaker 1: think the one thing I was craving, and I was
Speaker 1: craving it kind of significantly, was just like a little
Speaker 1: deeper understanding of these characters. I do feel like Kay,
Speaker 1: basically all we know about her is she's pregnant. That's
Speaker 1: who is she? What does she dream of? What does
Speaker 1: she want to do? What does she hate? Like I
Speaker 1: kind of don't know Jorn. I know he hates androids,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of it. Like Tyler, same thing. He
Speaker 1: feels a little and the characters feel a little thin
Speaker 1: to me now you mentioned it. I do think David
Speaker 1: Johnson gives a tour to force here as Andy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he's given a wide range of Like there's Andy
Speaker 1: who is more hobbled intellectually and physically and is not
Speaker 1: kind of he's half destroyed. He you know, Rain keeps
Speaker 1: having to reboot him. Then he gets an upgrade and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, he's a much more competent, much sharper,
Speaker 1: slightly more ominous figure. And that kind of wide range
Speaker 1: is cool. Kaylee Spiney is awesome. Part of that is
Speaker 1: just like how much he's on the screen. But I
Speaker 1: do I did find myself wishing that I knew more
Speaker 1: about these characters, that there had been more in this
Speaker 1: movie for me to hold on to, so that I
Speaker 1: cared about these characters more like I should. At a
Speaker 1: certain point, I'm like, God, I hope you aren't dies,
Speaker 1: and I shouldn't. I feel like I shouldn't be feeling
Speaker 1: that guys should.
Speaker 2: Not feel like, you know what this guy gets. I
Speaker 2: do think that that is intentional, and I think it
Speaker 2: comes with him specifically, and I do think it comes
Speaker 2: down to something where we were talking about this pre production.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about the because I've just discovered something
Speaker 2: and I think it makes that more intentional. So let's
Speaker 2: talk about Kay's father, Like, who.
Speaker 1: Is I mean is I thought it was clearly born.
Speaker 1: Other people are saying.
Speaker 2: No, Well, I also believed it was borne because she says,
Speaker 2: you know, he's he's that ass h's some asshole, and
Speaker 2: then they're always calling him an asshole, and he's clearly
Speaker 2: kind of creepy and he's got a bad vibe, and
Speaker 2: there's like a scene where it really feels like that
Speaker 2: is implied. And in a Reddit thread, somebody supposed that,
Speaker 2: and FEddi Alvarez jumped in and said, yeah, you're right,
Speaker 2: and this is actually a very fede thing because something
Speaker 2: that was pointed out in our pre production and people
Speaker 2: are very upset about and Reddit, is that that Cousins
Speaker 2: in the screen? Yeah, but no, that's Freddy says. It's
Speaker 2: it's happening baby, And if you've seen Don't Breathe, this
Speaker 2: man probably does not have a problem with that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'll just say that's true. I mean, I'll
Speaker 1: just say, of the Cousins thing, there's two thousand people
Speaker 1: that live on this planet, like you've gotta you've got
Speaker 1: to get busy somehow, and I think that obviously it's
Speaker 1: not an ideal situation, but people, you know, life finds
Speaker 1: a way, you.
Speaker 4: Know what I mean.
Speaker 1: You simply can't have the same kind of uh red line,
Speaker 1: you know, criteria for finding a mate on a planet
Speaker 1: where there's probably less people that live there than live
Speaker 1: on your street. Yeah, like in certain areas of the country.
Speaker 1: So I just feel like that didn't that didn't bump me.
Speaker 2: Yeah. That also I'm a big fan of Uh. I'm
Speaker 2: a big fan of the fact that Feddy just made
Speaker 2: his own like Reddit profile and then he kept getting
Speaker 2: in trouble on Reddit because they were saying he was
Speaker 2: impersonating himself because he was going around just like answering
Speaker 2: people's questions about the movie and read it was like
Speaker 2: you are not Freeddy Alvarez and he was like, no,
Speaker 2: I am, I really am. I promise. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: think I definitely think that something about the First Alien
Speaker 2: movie that makes it so special is look, Okay, first
Speaker 2: of all, doesn't hurt that it has like a cast
Speaker 2: of just absolutely stella character actors who would go on
Speaker 2: to you know, become huge stars like Ian Holm and
Speaker 2: yeaf At Koto and you know John Hurt, you know
Speaker 2: you have and and I do think here they do
Speaker 2: channel that because Isabella McCart is going to be a
Speaker 2: huge star.
Speaker 1: But there there was this there was this like ultimate
Speaker 1: esque banter. Yeah, in that movie exact it's where they're
Speaker 1: talking about their shares, and there all these little things
Speaker 1: that add texture exactly where you know, you know what
Speaker 1: they care about, you kind of understand what the situation
Speaker 1: of working for this company.
Speaker 2: Is, you understand really miss that. Yeah, I agree, I
Speaker 2: wanted to know more about each of the characters before
Speaker 2: they were in that situation. And I will say, pacing wise,
Speaker 2: and I believe this is something that Fed's talked about
Speaker 2: as well. Pacing wise, it does follow the first half
Speaker 2: of the movie is far more in that alien slowburn
Speaker 2: getting to the aliens, and then the second half is
Speaker 2: more of an alien's kind of situation, lots of shooting,
Speaker 2: lots of cool, gooey aliens. But I do think that
Speaker 2: what's missing from that slowburn aspect is that interrogation of
Speaker 2: like what are these relationships, Like how do they what
Speaker 2: do they care about? Like what brought them together? What
Speaker 2: do they pure And ironically is the one we get
Speaker 2: to kind of know the most about just because we
Speaker 2: learned that his mom was killed in a mining accident
Speaker 2: where they basically to see the androids had to like
Speaker 2: seal her in the mind. But we don't really get
Speaker 2: a lot And I think, you know, you made a
Speaker 2: great point when we were talking about this ahead of it.
Speaker 2: One of the things that the movie is definitely kind
Speaker 2: of missing is like a lot of the set dressing
Speaker 2: is just references to old alien movies. Fun, but it
Speaker 2: takes away from like I would like you you know,
Speaker 2: what were you saying about Tyler, about his like interest
Speaker 2: in the military.
Speaker 1: I thought that was Yeah, so there's like there's another
Speaker 1: early in the film, when they first arrived on the
Speaker 1: space station, you know, he's Tyler is giving these like
Speaker 1: hand signism, like why are you giving these hand signals?
Speaker 1: What's what's up with that? And that's our first hint
Speaker 1: that Tyler is interested in the military. Maybe he wants
Speaker 1: to join the Colonial Marines. And I thought it was
Speaker 1: a real wasted opportunity to not we go to Tyler's apartment,
Speaker 1: you don't see like to your point about the dressing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: how about a poster for the Colonial Marines, how about
Speaker 1: like some books about something, how about anything in that
Speaker 1: living space that would suggest to me that that's an
Speaker 1: interest to him. We open on Rain's bunk and it's
Speaker 1: like anodyne. There's like nothing there. Uh, you know. Caren
Speaker 1: was talking about the fact that we see that little
Speaker 1: duck that little dunking duck. That's a callback to the
Speaker 1: Alien film. That's great, But how about some stuff in
Speaker 1: there that's personalized to these It makes it feel like
Speaker 1: a living space. And again small note, really because I
Speaker 1: loved everything else about the movie, But I I guess
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is I wanted to love it more.
Speaker 1: I want to love it so much more.
Speaker 2: Than I do. I love the experience of it. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna always be thinking about the animatronic alien and the
Speaker 2: real animatronic face huggers. Like the way this movie looks
Speaker 2: and feels is so fantastic, and I already do. Like
Speaker 2: I said, I love the canon of like a I
Speaker 2: would die for these kids, and like this is definitely
Speaker 2: in that canon for me because I have a lot
Speaker 2: of love Fatchi Renaut, who plays Tyler. He was in
Speaker 2: Shadow and Bone and I saw he was so fantastic
Speaker 2: in that. Kaylee Spenny, she's really, you know, giving that
Speaker 2: like she was in the Oscar contention. She's been in
Speaker 2: a twenty four movies and now she's here leading like
Speaker 2: an action movie. I thought Aileen Woer's Navarro was easily
Speaker 2: the coolest character who I wanted to know.
Speaker 1: More punched above her weight.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And I also think that something that she
Speaker 2: really represents that I think the film does well is
Speaker 2: the interconnections between the Alien movies and then the Prometheus
Speaker 2: movies that Ridley Scott came back and made, because Navarro
Speaker 2: has that connection to this religious exploration and that is
Speaker 2: really a huge part of Prometheus. And then obviously we
Speaker 2: get die more direct connections when we sort of start
Speaker 2: to learn about the black Goo from this animorphs and
Speaker 2: that the alien, the big chap alien from the first
Speaker 2: movie survived. So this does lead us on to one
Speaker 2: more conversation point, which is once you get onto the ship,
Speaker 2: there's all this beautiful practical effects, but they find a synthetic,
Speaker 2: the dead body of a synthetic who is revealed to
Speaker 2: be as you mentioned, Ash, but this is Brook, but
Speaker 2: he looks like Ash, who was played by Ian Holm
Speaker 2: in one of the most chilling performances in the franchise.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget when he wraps that tight little magazine
Speaker 2: up to stuff down Sigourney Weaver's throat. So this is
Speaker 2: this is Rook, who's another He is the science officer
Speaker 2: on this ship, and he is the same model. So
Speaker 2: you have Ian Holm's face, I just don't look. His
Speaker 2: family supported this, which I love and that's important. That's
Speaker 2: all mask But why didn't they do it with an
Speaker 2: actual physical cast of I believe that one of those
Speaker 2: must still exist somewhere from the original movie. I think
Speaker 2: that the CGI of it all took the movie, but
Speaker 2: it still has that uncanny valley.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, I did. My only thought is that
Speaker 1: they must have tried, and they couldn't get it to work,
Speaker 1: couldn't get it to look anywhere near good enough. Now,
Speaker 1: I suppose there's a world in which if you can't
Speaker 1: get it to look anywhere near good enough, maybe make
Speaker 1: it look a lot worse and you really tear it
Speaker 1: up and so it's only barely recognizable. But I'm sure
Speaker 1: that they tried that, and this must have been the best,
Speaker 1: you know, the best option that they could have gone with.
Speaker 1: It did it was for a movie that feels so tactile.
Speaker 1: It was interesting. I let's talk about the phones. Characters
Speaker 1: are phones in this.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, wow, could you believe it?
Speaker 1: There's a lot of other parts of this, like I
Speaker 1: I love the weapon design, I loved the I loved
Speaker 1: the face huggers. Oh they think the face Huggers were
Speaker 1: more of a front. That's something we've kind of not
Speaker 1: seen before. Also, is a more direct threat from the
Speaker 1: face huggers where yes, warm of them coming at you.
Speaker 2: And they did a really I think they did something
Speaker 2: really smart as well, which is they're in the trailer.
Speaker 2: They showed like all of the characters, Eileen Wu, you know,
Speaker 2: Archie Renault, the Spike who played Beyond, they kind of
Speaker 2: had these clips of them looking like they were getting
Speaker 2: got by the face huggers. But actually they kind of
Speaker 2: introduced this, if you can get the face hugger's horrific
Speaker 2: tentacle out of your mouth before it implants the egg,
Speaker 2: oh wait, you can maybe survive this. So we kind
Speaker 2: of got this great horrific, very grotesque sequence where they're
Speaker 2: all kind of fighting it first until it ultimately, you know,
Speaker 2: gets at Navarro. But I thought that was really good.
Speaker 2: I loved the face hugger scene where we finally got
Speaker 2: to see it connect with Navarro. I thought that Eileen
Speaker 2: Woo did an unreal job getting to do her own
Speaker 2: version of that chest burster scene. I just generally did
Speaker 2: think this was really fun. I loved getting to see
Speaker 2: the proto pulse rife for kind of like the colonial
Speaker 2: Marines having aliens. I also thought that there was a
Speaker 2: there's a really really clever sequence that did something we'd
Speaker 2: never seen before, which was this use of the anti
Speaker 2: gravity with the acid blood when Spanny. That's really cool. Again.
Speaker 2: I just think I'm like, David Johnson, give him an award, please,
Speaker 2: because he just grounds this. It's like when you know
Speaker 2: when they cost Adam Driver and Force Awakens, and the
Speaker 2: whole time you're watching the movie, you're like, You're so
Speaker 2: lucky that Adam Driver said he would play Kylo Ren
Speaker 2: like you. This movie is great, and I obviously I
Speaker 2: love the Force Awakens. I would die for my children Cannon,
Speaker 2: it's definitely a part of it. But like when Adam
Speaker 2: Driver is in that movie, You're like, this man is
Speaker 2: bringing like Shakespearean Thespian levels of tragedy to this these
Speaker 2: scenes with like Harrison Ford, and I feel like David
Speaker 2: Johnson is that grounding kind of elevating force in this movie.
Speaker 2: So and it's absolutely wild to see him from He
Speaker 2: was in this absolutely delightful Hulu uh rom com called
Speaker 2: Rye Rye Lane that was set in London in South
Speaker 2: London and he's so charming and delightful in that. Please
Speaker 2: go watch it. It's so good. But it was crazy
Speaker 2: to then see him kind of playing this more complicated
Speaker 2: like spooky figure when he you know, depending on which
Speaker 2: andy we got, and I just thought it was like
Speaker 2: really cool.
Speaker 1: He's also great in the first two seasons of Industry.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh my gosh, Industry season three, just saying if
Speaker 2: you are looking for because this feels like there's it's
Speaker 2: gonna be the new succession, right.
Speaker 1: This is as in as quick aside about Industry season
Speaker 1: three on HBO and Max. It has definitely leveled up.
Speaker 1: If you're watching season one and season two, you're trying
Speaker 1: to get through it and you're wondering, is this is it? Really?
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is for me. I promise
Speaker 1: season three is thus far.
Speaker 2: Coalesces is hitting three hard.
Speaker 1: Anyway, back to the movie, I want to one final thing,
Speaker 1: which is your thoughts on the engineer like alien xenomorph
Speaker 1: human hybrid born from K's womb, bonded, bonded with her
Speaker 1: unborn child, and let's talk about this alien. What did
Speaker 1: you think of it? Also? Should this alien have tried
Speaker 1: out for the NBA.
Speaker 2: Definitely he should he should have been in the club
Speaker 2: or shooting hoops. He's seven foot tall. You know what,
Speaker 2: I'll be real with you. I thought it was very
Speaker 2: clever design. I definitely liked that they made it look
Speaker 2: like an engineer now knowing that this is now, knowing
Speaker 2: that Fede has like confirmed that it is like it
Speaker 2: was Buhn's baby. I also think this was probably Fede
Speaker 2: doing some like, oh, incest baby with a xenomorph. I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna lie. I'm just the lover of the original
Speaker 2: xenomorph designs, and the Queen's aenomorph and like the alien
Speaker 2: queen and basically anything Geiger does. So that that didn't
Speaker 2: hit for me in like a spooky, like scary way.
Speaker 2: I didn't think like, oh, I'm scared of this, but
Speaker 2: I will say I did think it was like a cool,
Speaker 2: unexpected twist. And I do think that every alien movie
Speaker 2: needs to introduce some new version, and so I think
Speaker 2: this was a unique way to bring together Prometheus and
Speaker 2: the alien movies and kind of create something that was
Speaker 2: really unique and never before seeing Carmen super producer Princess Carmen,
Speaker 2: who's also an alien Stannus, you want to. Carmen was
Speaker 2: terrified by the offspring, so it did. I think it
Speaker 2: worked differently for other people.
Speaker 1: It was gonna look. I really liked it and was
Speaker 1: completely creeped out by it. Yeah. Uh, it was really disgusting.
Speaker 1: And they grow so fast. I mean the thing grew
Speaker 1: to like seven foot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was like it was twenty minutes. It was
Speaker 2: like Twilight speed birth, like there giving birth and then
Speaker 2: the baby and then the babies in the NBA. You know,
Speaker 2: it's like so quickly, they grow up so fast. Okay,
Speaker 2: So one thing I want to ask you quickly before
Speaker 2: we end on this is like I feel like, because
Speaker 2: the movie's made a lot of money and because it
Speaker 2: was relatively affordable to make in the grand scheme of
Speaker 2: like a dead poor Wolverine, I think this could lead
Speaker 2: to more movies. But the question is is it gonna be.
Speaker 2: I feel like they could do like a spin off
Speaker 2: of this where they kind of follow Rain and Andy
Speaker 2: because she said, you know, I believe she'll fix Andy.
Speaker 2: They're both together, and they could kind of explore more
Speaker 2: about like the mysterious life giving goo that we see
Speaker 2: in Alien, that we see in Prometheus, and then we
Speaker 2: now see in Alien Romulus, or they could just keep
Speaker 2: making like weird anthology movies that fit more around different timelines.
Speaker 2: I think I would the latter as much as I
Speaker 2: want to see Andy, But like, what do you think, Like,
Speaker 2: what do you think the next Alien movie is going
Speaker 2: to be?
Speaker 1: There is, of course Noah Hawley's Alien Earth. Yes, which
Speaker 1: is it's going.
Speaker 2: To be a true prequel, I guess saying.
Speaker 1: In some kind of place in its production life cycle.
Speaker 1: We don't know where. I personally, I think that the
Speaker 1: tried and true. Here's the thing about Alien Romulus. It
Speaker 1: is directly lifted from the original Alien formula, which is
Speaker 1: Haunted House in Space.
Speaker 2: Trapped room, trapped Room.
Speaker 1: And I think that that that has a lot of
Speaker 1: life and vitality in it, different places, different cast You
Speaker 1: can do a lot of things with that, and you
Speaker 1: can make pretty relatively cheap movies that people want to
Speaker 1: see just based on that formula. Me personally, I would
Speaker 1: I'm hoping to see. One of the things I liked
Speaker 1: about Prometheus is that it evolved the story, and I
Speaker 1: think that's what I want is I want those scares.
Speaker 1: I want that monster movie, I want that Haunted House
Speaker 1: in Space. But I'm hoping to see more of the world,
Speaker 1: have it more fleshed out, maybe have there be more
Speaker 1: challenges as we get more of these movies. But I
Speaker 1: think one of the things that I'm really excited about
Speaker 1: is that it's for sure we're gonna get that, We're
Speaker 1: gonna get more opportunities for more alien movies. I agree
Speaker 1: with how Gangbusters this film is going right now all
Speaker 1: around the world.
Speaker 2: I definitely didn't expect. I mean, this came out what
Speaker 2: like three weeks after Deadpool and Wouverine and managed to
Speaker 2: take it off, which I don't know if anyone saw coming.
Speaker 2: Also as well, FEDDEI did have a cool idea and
Speaker 2: we'll leave you with this, which is he did an
Speaker 2: interview I believe it was with Deadline where he said,
Speaker 2: I want to do an alien versus preditor movie that's
Speaker 2: half directed by me and half directed by Dan Trachtenberg
Speaker 2: who made Prey. Now I want to see that. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm like Disney green Light that movie.
Speaker 1: It's like from Dusk Till Dawn but in Spain.
Speaker 2: Oh, now we're talking.
Speaker 1: We like this movie. Hope you go hope you liked
Speaker 1: it too. Up next, you want more Alien Romulus. We've
Speaker 1: got more. We've got an interview with Alien Romulus star
Speaker 1: Alien Wu, who plays Navarro.
Speaker 2: Check that out.
Speaker 1: We're so excited to welcome Alien Wu, who plays Novarro
Speaker 1: in Alien Romulus. Alien, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4: Of course, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I was reading about the process of you getting the role,
Speaker 1: and it's so fun. I was wondering if you might
Speaker 1: share that with us.
Speaker 4: I think it was February twenty twenty one. I was
Speaker 4: back home in Vancouver having finished undergrad at NYU, and
Speaker 4: my husband and I were actually working together when I
Speaker 4: got the self tape. He was producing and I was
Speaker 4: directing a bunch of high school students in a production
Speaker 4: of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which is I was kind of
Speaker 4: a fun odd job that he had gotten me. We
Speaker 4: weren't married yet, and that was like one of his
Speaker 4: schemes to get me to come back home from New York.
Speaker 4: He was like, I got you a job. He can't
Speaker 4: turn down a job, and I was like, yeah, I
Speaker 4: really can't. And he made it first time working on
Speaker 4: anything theater Shakespeare related. Yeah, it was. We were having
Speaker 4: a blast, and you know, we were a month away
Speaker 4: and this self tape request comes in from my manager Helen,
Speaker 4: and she's like, bracket, this is alien because they don't
Speaker 4: usually tell you what it is in the title when
Speaker 4: it's such a big franchise. Yeah. We went over to
Speaker 4: my husband's producing partners apartment to film it after like
Speaker 4: a twelve hour rehearsal day because he had this really
Speaker 4: cool setup with like the blue screen backdrop and oh wow. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and I was like, yeah, let's let's use this because
Speaker 4: mainly one of the scenes or a couple of the
Speaker 4: scenes had the entire ensemble, and we thought it would
Speaker 4: be a good idea to kind of like have two
Speaker 4: people read with me so I wouldn't get confused and
Speaker 4: help me with my eyelines. But yeah, I did watch
Speaker 4: the first film before doing the tape because I had
Speaker 4: never watched any of them before.
Speaker 5: Did I read your introduction was through your brother's action figure.
Speaker 4: Yes, this could tract. Yeah. So, while we moved to
Speaker 4: Vancouver when we were still in elementary school, and my
Speaker 4: mom as an incentive to get us to really learn English,
Speaker 4: if we did well at our English class, like, she
Speaker 4: signed us up for outside of school English classes to
Speaker 4: help us, you know, get better faster. If we did
Speaker 4: well at those. Every week, she'd bring my brother and
Speaker 4: I to like this Action figure store every Friday and
Speaker 4: we would get to pick out a toy. But it's
Speaker 4: really just like me following my older brother around and
Speaker 4: watching what he would pick out. And he'd always give
Speaker 4: me like a big introduction or like description of who
Speaker 4: this is, what universe they're from, what powers they have.
Speaker 4: But one day, like a xenomorph showed up. I didn't
Speaker 4: know what it was, and I was like, this is weird,
Speaker 4: and he's like, don't worry about it. I'll tell you
Speaker 4: about next week's but this one's just for me.
Speaker 5: Has he seen you in the movie yet?
Speaker 4: No? He hasn't.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, David, my older brother David, He like we
Speaker 6: have a funny relationship.
Speaker 4: Like he's the only person I feel like in my
Speaker 4: life who's like never impressed with what I do. It's
Speaker 4: just like you will always be like my stupid, annoying
Speaker 4: little sister who would not leave me alone ever growing up,
Speaker 4: who I always have to clean up after because like
Speaker 4: I threw a lot of parties during high school and
Speaker 4: he would My parents would assign him as like babysitter
Speaker 4: and he would have to like show up at these
Speaker 4: parties and like help clean up and like like clean
Speaker 4: puke off the floor, so like and be like stop
Speaker 4: smoking in the backyard and like drive my drunk friends home.
Speaker 4: And he wouldn't get to like drink and have fun
Speaker 4: at these parties. So that's that's kind of our relationship,
Speaker 4: which which I think honestly is very good for me,
Speaker 4: Like it keeps me very grounded, humble. Yeah, so I
Speaker 4: think he'll see it at some point, but I think
Speaker 4: when it all dies down and like he gets to
Speaker 4: like see it and by himself, you know, in our hometown.
Speaker 1: So sometimes when you send in a self tape, you
Speaker 1: know you're waiting. You don't know how, you know, you
Speaker 1: don't know what the what the reaction is. How quick
Speaker 1: did the process happen? After sending in the tape, Oh,
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 4: The next day they were like, they want to do
Speaker 4: a zoom callback. I was like, great, I'd never gotten
Speaker 4: a zoom callback from doing a self tape before. I
Speaker 4: had only been with my agent, my manager, Helen, for
Speaker 4: a year up to that point, and she was great.
Speaker 4: She sent me things like back to back to back
Speaker 4: and I would tape for them, and I feel like
Speaker 4: it really built like that audition muscle in me. But
Speaker 4: that was truthfully the first a callback that I got.
Speaker 4: And then yeah, I did the callback, met Mary Renew
Speaker 4: and Sydney. They were great to give me a couple
Speaker 4: of notes. I did it like twice, and then two
Speaker 4: days after I had that call back, they sent me
Speaker 4: the full script, had me read it, and then I
Speaker 4: was on a call with Fede who was in Budapestuary
Speaker 4: and then he kind of gave me the role during
Speaker 4: the call like that call, but I didn't really know
Speaker 4: that that was what was going on. It was like,
Speaker 4: so you you down to do this, and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: this is are you tricking me? Because you know, my
Speaker 4: my manager and my husband as well, who works mainly
Speaker 4: as a film producer, they warned me. They're like, hey,
Speaker 4: you have to wait for the official contract from studio. Like,
Speaker 4: don't get your hopes up. There's a lot lot of
Speaker 4: horror stories with actors getting in the process of getting
Speaker 4: roles that like last minute they pull out and it's
Speaker 4: like getting the rug pulled out from under them. It's
Speaker 4: the worst feelings. So like, just really stay grounded, plant
Speaker 4: your feet and we wait no matter what happens on
Speaker 4: the zoom call we wait until your name is on
Speaker 4: a piece of paper underneath the line where you can
Speaker 4: sign your name. I was like, okay, got it. So
Speaker 4: when he said that, I was like, they warned me
Speaker 4: about this.
Speaker 5: It's funny. We'll talk to us about the first time
Speaker 5: you walk on set.
Speaker 4: Oh man, I was so never been to Budapest before.
Speaker 4: A beautiful, beautiful country. And then the studio is huge.
Speaker 4: It's where they also filmed like Doom Part one and
Speaker 4: part two, so it's like giant, giant buildings that look
Speaker 4: like warehouses. And Fete is giving me, Archie and Spike
Speaker 4: a tour. So we just went in and every studio
Speaker 4: had like different sets were built in them, and I
Speaker 4: was just like can I film this? I'm very like
Speaker 4: or is that not allowed? But yeah, he was just
Speaker 4: so excited to was so excited to show us everything.
Speaker 4: It truly was like his his baby.
Speaker 1: You know, I've read that, And this is kind of
Speaker 1: unique for feature films that it was filmed in order.
Speaker 4: Yes, it was a film all chronologically.
Speaker 1: That's wild. So your first scene is the first thing
Speaker 1: that you did after arriving on set?
Speaker 4: Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1: Wow? So what was that like?
Speaker 4: It was such. I mean, this is my first feature film.
Speaker 4: I had no idea what I was. I was like,
Speaker 4: is this normal? Do we always shoot in chronological order?
Speaker 4: And everybody was like, no, this never happens. I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 4: well this is a treat. I think it really kicked
Speaker 4: in afterwards. Oh, I just got a miss call from
Speaker 4: wonder what's going on. I'll call him back if.
Speaker 1: You want to close it of a text? Wee can
Speaker 1: you don't want to?
Speaker 4: No? No, it's okay, I like to. Yeah, it didn't
Speaker 4: for the chronological part. Oh, he's really calling again.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, we'll meet the Yeah, feel free to.
Speaker 4: Meet in Sorry guys.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, that was the sweetest thing.
Speaker 4: He's a sweet, sweet man. So just called me. I
Speaker 4: missed the first one, but I picked up the second one.
Speaker 4: He was like, this, this movie is making so much money.
Speaker 4: I'm not very good with numbers, he said the number,
Speaker 4: but it's making a lot of money.
Speaker 1: In the China market, it really is.
Speaker 4: And yeah, and he said there's not like a massive
Speaker 4: cult following in China, so it really is just credits
Speaker 4: to us and specifically me. That was very sweet because
Speaker 4: this is the thing even in the audition request. They
Speaker 4: were like, if you speak another language, please do one
Speaker 4: of the tapes in the other language that you speak.
Speaker 4: So I did that. Yeah, I've never seen that before.
Speaker 4: I've never experienced that with a tape before. And after
Speaker 4: we got on set, he was like, hey, your tapes,
Speaker 4: those Mandarin takes that you did were so cool. Do
Speaker 4: you mind if we bring some of that while filming
Speaker 4: and like brainstorm some moments where Navarro would speak in
Speaker 4: her mother tongue. So there's a couple moments in the
Speaker 4: film where I got to speak Mandarin and I'm getting
Speaker 4: some like traction like just on Instagram and stuff like
Speaker 4: that of people being like, wow, this is this is
Speaker 4: so special. First Asia an actress in this franchise and
Speaker 4: she's speaking Mandarin. This is so cool.
Speaker 1: That is really cool. How did you choose the moments?
Speaker 4: Like what were the I went for the private moments.
Speaker 4: I went for the more private moments that Navarro was having.
Speaker 4: And really it was like very collaborative with Fei. He
Speaker 4: would be like half the time he'd be like, hey,
Speaker 4: I think this is a and I was like, yes,
Speaker 4: I agree. I was just going to go to you
Speaker 4: and say that maybe it's here. Yeah, And he'd be
Speaker 4: like saying maybe something like this, and I'll be like, okay, okay,
Speaker 4: I got you. And then I would like try to
Speaker 4: come up with something and like call my mom and
Speaker 4: call my husband right before we roll and be like,
Speaker 4: does this make sense? Because my Mandarin is not perfect?
Speaker 4: Like it's been a long time since I've been in
Speaker 4: an environment where it's all Mandarin speaking, so I feel
Speaker 4: like I kind of speak it brokenly.
Speaker 5: That he seems like such a actor's director as watch
Speaker 5: a bunch of like videos with him and talking about
Speaker 5: his process and everything. And one thing that really stuck
Speaker 5: out to me that that was interesting, is it sometimes
Speaker 5: he'll barbecue for the cast and crew, he said, especially
Speaker 5: if there's like a really difficult day or week ahead,
Speaker 5: like to sort of prep them. I was wondering if
Speaker 5: he barbecued for you guys, and if so, can you
Speaker 5: raise his food so good?
Speaker 4: Such good barbecue? He he brings the meat from Uruguay.
Speaker 4: I'm not kidding, he like, he puts, yes, I don't
Speaker 4: know how you did that. He's like, guys, this is
Speaker 4: meat from Uruguay arrived this morning. And he barbecues for
Speaker 4: the entire cast and crew, like hundreds and hundreds of
Speaker 4: thousands of people. And he says this is a tradition
Speaker 4: of his and he does this every film that he's directing.
Speaker 4: Before we start shooting. Wow, and like his his wife
Speaker 4: is like chopping up the bread and making the chimmy
Speaker 4: churry and the salad, and his uncle is there and
Speaker 4: his kids are running around like it's the best, it's
Speaker 4: the best vibes.
Speaker 1: That is so cool, you know, it struck me thinking
Speaker 1: about this movie, which is notable for use of extensive
Speaker 1: use of really practical like in camera effects, and it's
Speaker 1: so interesting that your self tape like had a blue screen,
Speaker 1: Like Yeah, I talk to us about like the contrast
Speaker 1: between you know, going from this self tape and this
Speaker 1: really quick process to then ending up on set where
Speaker 1: you know, you've got a chest burster thing like on
Speaker 1: you three chess burster. Yeah, there's like what there's water
Speaker 1: and grease and stuff dripping off everything. I talked to
Speaker 1: Loube apparently, yeah, Loube, apparently you're stuck in a hole
Speaker 1: for a period of time, So what is that? What's that?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 7: That was really crazy. I really just tried to take
Speaker 7: it one day out of time. You're honest, with y'all,
Speaker 7: and I think folmin in chronological order again really helped
Speaker 7: with that because like you could track with the script
Speaker 7: as we went on really.
Speaker 4: Easily, and it came very naturally. The journey of her downfall,
Speaker 4: which is also very short, yeah, because it just it
Speaker 4: happens and then all shit goes down once it once
Speaker 4: she's attacked, everything happens super fast paced. So yeah, that
Speaker 4: was very exhilarating. It's just like, Okay, face hugger's check,
Speaker 4: We've done a week of that, next week the chess
Speaker 4: burser check, and then okay, let's do the appendage coming
Speaker 4: out of my mouth with second You know, we kept
Speaker 4: looking forward to that moment and it never came on tip.
Speaker 4: Right before I was stepping off set, they were like, yeah,
Speaker 4: that's right, we haven't shot.
Speaker 8: That one scene one moment yet. Let's let's do that
Speaker 8: with second unit. And I was like, damn, I wish
Speaker 8: I got to do it with FEddi. But once we
Speaker 8: started filming that, I was like, Okay, it makes a
Speaker 8: lot of sense that we're doing this on second unit
Speaker 8: because it's just like a very technical shot and it's
Speaker 8: like one set up and yeah, we spent like I
Speaker 8: think six seven hours doing that one one take, over
Speaker 8: and over and over.
Speaker 5: This is where you're pulling the face hugger off you.
Speaker 4: Yes, everybody thinks it's CGI, but it's not.
Speaker 5: Wow holy yow.
Speaker 4: And no, no, it doesn't actually go all the way
Speaker 4: down to my stomach. I didn't have to swallow a
Speaker 4: thing every take.
Speaker 1: As a producer, director yourself, were you able to glean
Speaker 1: anything from being on set that you're like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is this will help me as I evolve in my career.
Speaker 4: Two things Fedi's kindness. Kindness as the director goes such
Speaker 4: a long way, especially when the task at hand is
Speaker 4: very large and challenging. Yeah, his patience and his kindness.
Speaker 4: And then that leads to my second thing. When you
Speaker 4: have that, it's easier to get everyone to have the
Speaker 4: mentality of like, let's get this shot. We either have
Speaker 4: this or we don't. We have to do this for
Speaker 4: the audience and really honor what their experience, what experience
Speaker 4: we want them to have and aim for the fucking stars.
Speaker 4: If you aim for it, then there's that's the only
Speaker 4: possible way that you might have a chance of reaching
Speaker 4: that well.
Speaker 1: Alien the movie is a huge hit, You're a big
Speaker 1: part of that. Congratulations on the success of the film
Speaker 1: and your success, and thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: us again.
Speaker 4: Thank you guys so much. This is lovely much.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Alien Wu for joining us. Coming up on
Speaker 1: X ray Vision, we're gonna be diving into Godzilla, Monster Island,
Speaker 1: Summer Cambriton by somebody who is on this it's recording session,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna be recapping Rings of Power season one.
Speaker 1: Oh baby, stay tuned for that. And that's it for
Speaker 1: this episode. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: Bye.
Speaker 1: X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kenseepsion and Rosie
Speaker 1: Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer
Speaker 1: is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and
Speaker 1: Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman
Speaker 2: and Heidi A discolled moderata