August 22, 2024 • 60 mins
In this episode, Jason and Rosie give us their reactions and thoughts on the HIT summer blockbuster Alien: Romulus. They discuss what they loved, what they wanted more of, and what they’d like to see in the next installment of this beloved spooky space franchise. THEN stick around for an interview with the LOVELY Aileen Wu, who plays Navarro in the film.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Warning, Today's episode contains spoilers for Alien Romulus in theaters now,
so if you haven't seen it, let's see it then listen. Suit. Hello,
(00:29):
my name is Jason and I'm Merday Night and welcome
back the Extra Vision of podcast where we dive deep.
It's your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture coming
to you from our podcasts where we're bringing you to
action packed episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
In today's action Packed episode, previously on, there is news, news, news,
the Acolytes been casting, rip to that show black Smith
Wukong is here and shadd James Streemis, shadd those steam records,
borderlines for trailer, secret level trailer, some sad news from
the world of anime, and a new date for Marvel Rivals.
(01:11):
There's all kinds of news and we're getting into it.
In the airlock, we are breaking down Alien Romulus, Fede
Alvarez's box office smash hit, So if you haven't listened,
make sure you go back. I watched that movie before
you come in here because it's gonna be all spoilers.
And then we have a special guest star as Jason
(01:31):
interviews one of the fantastic stars of Alien Romulus Aileen lou.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Up next. Previously on Well, folks, we woke up to
some crazy news this morning. The Acolyte has been canceled.
There will be no season two. This is reported by
all the trades, Deadline, forty, et cetera. The show ended
(01:58):
up with a seventy eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But
I think it's fair to say there was some divisions.
It was certainly divisive in terms of ratings. It was
the worst performing Star Wars show. Now, a quick note
about ratings. It's impossible to get accurate streaming ratings from
(02:20):
any of the streamers, so here you're kind of, uh,
We're always going to be referencing either Nielsen data or
Illuminate Data, some third party data site. And the thing
is their formulas are all different and have a lot
to do with like engagement in social media. The streamers
themselves would say that's not accurate. That aside, it certainly
(02:45):
appears that The Ecolyte was in terms of watches, in
terms of ratings, the worst performing and fell off over
the course of the series. And that is, you know,
in addition to the pretty toxic conversation around the show.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
It was hammered.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I definitely feel like we obviously can't know what's going
on in an exact mind, but I do feel like
this was surprising to me because you know the surprised.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
The show had a very passionate fandom that loved it,
and it also was a conversation driver in a way
I think Disney has been seeking for their shows. That
hasn't necessarily happened this year. But as you say, it
was very divisive. I would hope that this is not,
(03:38):
you know, a case where they're listening to the most
negative parts of the fandom and choosing to cancel a
show based on that. I would say something we need
to notice. The show was incredibly expensive. It was one
hundred and eighty million dollars apparently according to Disney, which,
by the way, like that's all that's a Disney problem.
Like if you want to make the show for less money,
(03:58):
give them less money. Like if you don't have the
money to make one hundred and eighty million dollar show,
which I know you do, Disney, then don't give it
to them, you know, like, let's let's plan ahead. But
I think there was so much more to come from this.
I also will say this is all rumors, of course,
but the Internet has noticed some interesting choices, which are
like they had Manny Jacinto at D twenty three like
(04:22):
a week ago, and they had a thirty foot projected
image of him on the wall that people could take
pictures with, which I've heard was very popular because who
didn't love crime here. They also then canceled the show
on his birthday. Seems thoughtless if this was always going
to be the case. Maybe we're looking at a situation
here where there's no Acolyte season two, but we will
(04:45):
see these characters and stories be continued in a high
republic style movie or something.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
That would not surprise me. I think this is in
certain specs. It's not surprising because of the ratings. I
think if if the viewership was there, then you could
they could shrug off the conversation. And I think more broadly,
(05:14):
Star Wars is kind of in a weird spot right
now where they are beholds into nostalgia in a way
that no other ip really is. They're caught between a
segment of the fan base that wants Star Wars the
way it has always been delivered to them. Now, I
think that the way that that that picture of a
(05:36):
nostalgic Star Wars is a myth in large part, uh,
and I think allies the content of the original trilogy
in a large way. That said, I it's it's a
tough spot because if you innovate, if you do something
interesting people, there's going to be a segment of the
(05:58):
fan base that absolutely hates it. And then if you
do the same old Star Wars stuff, you're really not
evolving the IP or doing anything that might bring in
more fans exactly and keep the community vibrant. So it's
just a tough spot and definitely a bummer.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Also interesting that they just straight up canceled it rather
than leaving it in kind of you know, limbo, like
a lot of these shows and movies end up being
like it's very rare for them to just be like
this is over, Like it's not happening, it's canceled. So
I think that's very interesting. Apparently there is rumors that
(06:39):
they had started working on season two, and that's why
they have to say it was canceled because Season two
kind of already existed. I will say one thing, our
discord is absolutely bummed. They were big Acolyte fans in there,
so sending love to the discord today, and I understand.
I hope we will get to see these stories and
themes and characters continued, because in the age of streaming
(07:00):
we live in now, stuff gets canceled so quickly. And
there's definitely been a lot of hilarious memes like the
Clone Wars never would have made it past you know,
season one in this era, so it's like.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
That's maybe true. Although I will say animated Flies under
the Radar continues incredibly influential. I think, in my opinion,
is probably primarily responsible for keeping people in touch with
Star Wars and growing new audience. But it's also like
something that the nostalgia heads, the hardcore nostalgia peeps, I
(07:35):
think broadly.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Ignore, yeah, the most part.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Next up, there is a new hit video game, and
it is Black Myth Wukan. The game has already become
in its short life as a release, has already become
the second most played game on scheme with why two
and a half million concurrent players behind PUBG still doing
(08:05):
it by way, PUBJ still.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Doing it, still doing it, basically.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Still doing it now Steam numbers. Of course, we're not
taking to account players using the Epic Game Store, which
is platform or playing on PS five, which is wild
separate ecosystem. This a game from a Chinese developer, has
had some controversy around it related to an email they
(08:29):
sent around to influencers as they were kind of like
ginning up excitement for the game, basically saying don't mention
COVID nineteen, we get it okay, but also no quote,
no feminist propaganda, which is interesting. Sure that said blackmith Willkon.
It's the gameplay looks pretty crazy, the bosses look incredibly huge,
(08:53):
and this game looks to be a juggernaut in the making.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, And the truth is, like I do deeply loved
Journey to the West and like the Monkey.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
King Wukan is the main character and Journey to the West,
which is huge hit in China and much of Asia.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, and it's like it's a it's a it's like
a sixteenth century Chinese novel that basically a lot of
people think it created the hero's journey. If you're watching
something like Avatar the Last Airbender, you're really watching something
that's very influenced by Journey to the West. So I
do think this is really interesting. The CEO of the
game company, who said, now that email he is. You know,
(09:30):
he has said some wild things in the past, but
sometimes you just gotta ignore it and just look at
a game. So it'll be interesting to see and I'm
interested to play this. I'm interested if any of our
our discord users are playing it, because the reviews are
pretty crazy. People say it's just a total whirlwind and
kind of a bit of an unexpected smash. I think.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Next up more video game stuff. Borderland's four has released
a teaser trailer. Not much that no gameplay, but I'm
excited on the less as a fan of the Venerable
Borderlands looter shooter franchise, I do enjoy some Borderlands.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, this is really great. I think I've been very
impressed with the Boardlands guy who was like, hey, you
love the game so much that you hated this bad movie.
Guess what, Bordlands four Finally it's finally coming out. He
was like, how can I turn this to my favor?
He's like, I didn't spend one hundred and ten million
dollars making this movie. But the reason people hate the
movie is because they love the games. So guess what,
(10:28):
Baby Boardlands for trailer They could not get that out
quick enough, and I respect it.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
More kind of video video games adjacent video games adjacent.
The trailer for Secret Level on Amazon Prime Videos this
is wild. This comes from the creative team behind Love,
Death and Robots, which, if you were a fan of Love,
Death and Robots on Netflix, this looks to be for you.
(10:55):
And it's an anthology series with each episode based around
a different game slash video game franchise, including Dungeons and Dragons,
Honor of Kings, Mega Man, pac Man, Warhammer, Warhammer forty
K So uh looks pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah. I also feel like Secret Level is the correct
name because the way that they kept this under wraps
until now is kind of super impressive when you have
something as broad as like pac Man and Outer Worlds,
you know, God of War episode as an Armored Corps.
So I'm extremely interested to see how this lands because
(11:35):
I do think that the way the IP is being
used right now, like with this Star Wars stuff, right like,
you invest all this money into one show and if
it doesn't work, then you know you're fucked, basically, So
I do think this idea of more like anthology ips
where you try stuff out and see what works and
see what people are drawn to. That feels like it's
(11:57):
quite could be a war for the future kind of
of what these companies are gonna do. Apparently looks like
Keanu Reeves is going to be involved, which you know,
always a good thing. We love to see him.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Marv rivals. We have a release dates. What are you
doing for the holiday season? I don't what I'll be
doing playing December four, it's gonna be free to play,
which means you're gonna pay for those skins.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Folks, Baby, are you ready to pay for Captain America?
Is a Nazi skin? Or ever hide your cat? They
gonna be chotching you five dollars for that. But yeah,
it looks good. It looks like an Overwatch reskin, which
we always knew it would do. Side I'm like, let me,
let me just let me just kill some I mean,
(12:45):
let me just battle some people in the guise of
a character I enjoy.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Looks great. I can't wait to get in there with you.
Rosie problems, because a.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Lot of problems.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Next up new Megalopolis trailer, which is notable for this
Megalopolis of course. The Francis Ford Coppola latest Francis Ford
Coppola movie that that famously features a part of the
movie in which a actor has to come out and address
the screen. I don't know how they're gonna do this
(13:17):
and wide release. That said, here's what was notable to
me about this trailer. The trailer opens and I've never
seen this before. The trailer opens with a basically Francis
Ford Coppol's resume starting oh yeah, Father, and and a
like review from when that movie was released to listen
(13:40):
to nineteen seventy two The Godfather, and then some pan
yeah the movie nineteen seventy nine Apocalypse. Now, Rex Reid says,
and irredeemable piece of trash.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
This man is so stressed.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Never seen this before. This guy he's been and France
is basically saying it. And people are gonna shoo on
this fucking movie, like the critic is gonna shoot on
it before it's released, and guess what, they're wrong.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
He's still gonna be great. Dude. This man is absolutely wild.
I feel like this is especially.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Fiery after all these kind of like on set issues
about he's been, like videos of him like kissing extras
and saying like I'm getting them into the party.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Mood baby like if I don't love that, so I
feel like he's on a he's on a train to
Frants for Coppola Land. Then it's maybe it's gonna crash.
Maybe he's gonna make it there and make a billion dollars.
Who knows. It's absolutely bonkers, this tray Lie. I couldn't
believe he did it.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Uh well. The film has a crack ensemble cast, including
Adam Driver, giancarlois Posito, Natalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shila Buff,
the disgraced Shilah Buff, everybody's favorite Hollywood right wing conservatives
On Voight, Laurence Fishburg, Tylie Shier, Jesus Schwartzman.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
And more.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, I believe Aubrey Plaza, which just absolutely bonkers, just
like completely wild. Chloe Feynman from SNL, Yeah, sure love it.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
That's the of the Warriors Fame and other great features
fam Tebe Sweeney. Yeah, Dustin Hoffman, he's there with his nephew, Grace.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Vanderwall, who I believe was on American Idol. Crazy, that's truly,
I mean, who knows what this movie is gonna be? Like,
this is gonna be absolutely Boncaus. Also, I just want
to say, this is a Lionsgate movie, right, This is
Lionsgate is doing some wild releases this year because lions
Gate is also buying The Crow, which we will talk
about another date. But I feel like who's out here
(15:50):
doing it? Like Lionsgate. They're putting the wildest stuff out
right now. And they picked up Cosmopolis and they're gonna
be making some kids come out from behind the popcorn
desk and speak to Adam Driver on that big screen.
I believe it.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
And then finally Sad News goes to the shell and bayonet.
A voice actress at Suko Tanaka has passed at age
sixty one, whiches so young? Uh thoughts and to her
family and.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Ye very just a huge kind of beacon in the
in the voice acting space.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And yeah, folks, let's jump out of your sternum, oh
like in like a freshly hatched alien to talk about
alien robins. Up next, we're stepping out of the air
(16:53):
lock to discuss alien romulus in theaters.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Now, Roses big hit, Baby.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
It's a huge all around the world.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
People are enjoying it, people are feeling it, people are
loving it, people are having conversations about which is exactly
what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Well, Rosie, I'll start. I like this movie. This is
a fun this is a fun movie, A good prequel.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
I believe. I believe they're calling it an intquel now
because it's between alien and aliens.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
A delightful interquol.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I'd never heard of that phrase before this week, but
there it is.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I love the practical effects. I love the more of
a starring role for the face huggers, which was oh
yeah fun.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
The animatronics Animore very impressive, very scary.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Was great, and I really enjoyed David Johnson as as Andy.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
That was the breakout.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Officials agreed, what did you think of the film?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I Fedda has Eddy Alva
as the director has made stuff that I really like,
like beebdev movies, made stuff that I like a little
bit less, like don't Breathe but visual and don't Breathe
too ooh. But the vision that he had for this movie,
(18:18):
the aesthetic of the movie, I think it's really.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
I think it's nice to be back in the world
of alien that you can kind of deeply immediately recognize.
It's grubby, it's gross, it's dark. You're on a mining colony,
you want to get out, you're a blue collar worker,
and you're going to be stopped by an alien. It's
incredibly bleak in a way that I think Edde does well.
I really liked it in the cinema. I think it's
(18:44):
a very enjoyable movie experience. Also, I have like a
cannon of movies and TV shows where like I will
forgive a lot of stuff if it's just like a
bunch of kids trying to get stuff done. So I'm like,
this is in the I would dive my children cannon.
Apart from Bjorn, I'm glad he died, but otherwise I
would be there. I would have been there fighting alongside Anna. Yeah,
(19:07):
I thought I definitely David Johnson as Andy, I think
is if he wasn't in this movie, I do not
think the reviews would be as good because I think
the one thing this script does really well that's very
interesting is it explores the notion of being a synthetic
in the alien world and what that means and how
(19:28):
much agency you have. And David Johnson gets to play
two different roles that are really really powerful, and one
of them is really scary and the other is really
kind of melancholic, and I just think he does such
an incredible job. Kaylee Spenny, she's great. She's a great
action e lead. She's she's got her muscles out. She
(19:48):
can hold he you know, a pulse rifle. I think
that there was some character actors here who were slightly wasted.
Isabella McCard from the beloved smash hit family movie Madam Webb. Yeah,
who is about to behold Go?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Well, let's quickly recap the film and then get into
a kind of deeper discussion. We're going to recap this
off the top of our heads. So we open on
a corporate planet that's basically all about mining and scavenging
a whalean Utani planet where you have to hit a
(20:27):
certain quota of I guess scavenge or hours or currency.
It's unclear what the number is, but you have to
hit this number before you're allowed to leave. So it's
kind of like the old school, like owing your life
to the company's store type of situation of like the
late nineteenth early twentieth century Industrial Revolution type thing, and.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
If they need more workers, they will just extend your time,
right so there's no it's not fair whalen Utani. This
is the ultimate like working class factory town where people
just dying from being in the mind from Black Lung.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
There's like two thousands, about two thousand people live there
in total, and part of that population is our main cast.
There is Rain played by Kaylee Spainey. There is Andy,
her artificial person brother, a gift from her father who
has passed away in the minds we believe.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Uh. There is Tyler, who is I believe Rain's ex right.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
It feels like the coding there is that he is
her ex.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah. There is kay who is pregnant with a baby
of unknown providence. We will discuss this play by further length.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Isabella Mcott who is going to be Hawk Girl in
the James Gun of Us and who was recently Ranya
and Madame Webb.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Las and then there is Bjorn played by Spike Fearn
Oh boo, I hate good acting Spike, and Alien Wu
plays Navarro. Yes, we'll be stay tuned for Alien Wu interview.
And basically they hit upon a scheme by which they
can leave the planet by taking their their like Junker
(22:20):
scavenger craft and outfitting it with enough cryo fuel to
power the the cryo chambers so that they can go
into hibernation for a nine year trip to a planet
where the sun actually shines, because on this planet it's
(22:40):
raining all the time and it sucks. And the only
way they can do that is by getting enough cryo
fuel to make the trip.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And keep the described for like nine years.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
For nine years, and they've discovered that there is like
a wrecked Whyland Utahani space station that's just kind of
like floating right above the planet, so they go up
there turns out to be a research facility, and it
turns out this research facility is like chock a block
(23:13):
with face huggers and other aliens and a more research.
There's like a decommission destroyed artificial person there played by
a beyond life ian home and long story short, the
aliens come out, Everybody except for Rain gets killed. She
(23:41):
ultimately defeats the alien. The final boss alien turns out
to be a hybrid alien human baby that gives birth
to is really scary, and now with enough cryo fuel
to make the trip, she leaves her last log, puts
(24:02):
Andy in the hibernation chamber, puts herself in the hibernation
chamber and heads for the new planet. Okay, you kind
of hit on it in your statement up top. I
do think and this is my one nitpick. Here's my nitpick.
I love everything about this movie. I love the face huggers.
I love the practical effects. I think that looks as
(24:25):
it looks astoundingly good. The cast is wonderful. I do
think the one thing I was craving, and I was
craving it kind of significantly, was just like a little
deeper understanding of these characters. I do feel like Kay,
basically all we know about her is she's pregnant. That's
(24:46):
who is she? What does she dream of? What does
she want to do? What does she hate? Like I
kind of don't know Jorn. I know he hates androids,
and that's kind of it. Like Tyler, same thing. He
feels a little and the characters feel a little thin
to me now you mentioned it. I do think David
(25:07):
Johnson gives a tour to force here as Andy. Yeah,
and he's given a wide range of Like there's Andy
who is more hobbled intellectually and physically and is not
kind of he's half destroyed. He you know, Rain keeps
having to reboot him. Then he gets an upgrade and
all of a sudden, he's a much more competent, much sharper,
(25:29):
slightly more ominous figure. And that kind of wide range
is cool. Kaylee Spiney is awesome. Part of that is
just like how much he's on the screen. But I
do I did find myself wishing that I knew more
about these characters, that there had been more in this
movie for me to hold on to, so that I
(25:51):
cared about these characters more like I should. At a
certain point, I'm like, God, I hope you aren't dies,
and I shouldn't. I feel like I shouldn't be feeling
that guys should.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Not feel like, you know what this guy gets. I
do think that that is intentional, and I think it
comes with him specifically, and I do think it comes
down to something where we were talking about this pre production.
So let's talk about the because I've just discovered something
and I think it makes that more intentional. So let's
(26:21):
talk about Kay's father, Like, who.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Is I mean is I thought it was clearly born.
Other people are saying.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
No, Well, I also believed it was borne because she says,
you know, he's he's that ass h's some asshole, and
then they're always calling him an asshole, and he's clearly
kind of creepy and he's got a bad vibe, and
there's like a scene where it really feels like that
is implied. And in a Reddit thread, somebody supposed that,
(26:52):
and FEddi Alvarez jumped in and said, yeah, you're right,
and this is actually a very fede thing because something
that was pointed out in our pre production and people
are very upset about and Reddit, is that that Cousins
in the screen? Yeah, but no, that's Freddy says. It's
it's happening baby, And if you've seen Don't Breathe, this
man probably does not have a problem with that.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I mean, I'll just say that's true. I mean, I'll
just say, of the Cousins thing, there's two thousand people
that live on this planet, like you've gotta you've got
to get busy somehow, and I think that obviously it's
not an ideal situation, but people, you know, life finds
a way, you.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
You simply can't have the same kind of uh red line,
you know, criteria for finding a mate on a planet
where there's probably less people that live there than live
on your street. Yeah, like in certain areas of the country.
(27:53):
So I just feel like that didn't that didn't bump me.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah. That also I'm a big fan of Uh. I'm
a big fan of the fact that Feddy just made
his own like Reddit profile and then he kept getting
in trouble on Reddit because they were saying he was
impersonating himself because he was going around just like answering
people's questions about the movie and read it was like
you are not Freeddy Alvarez and he was like, no,
(28:19):
I am, I really am. I promise. But yeah, I
think I definitely think that something about the First Alien
movie that makes it so special is look, Okay, first
of all, doesn't hurt that it has like a cast
of just absolutely stella character actors who would go on
to you know, become huge stars like Ian Holm and
(28:40):
yeaf At Koto and you know John Hurt, you know
you have and and I do think here they do
channel that because Isabella McCart is going to be a
huge star.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
But there there was this there was this like ultimate
esque banter. Yeah, in that movie exact it's where they're
talking about their shares, and there all these little things
that add texture exactly where you know, you know what
they care about, you kind of understand what the situation
of working for this company.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Is, you understand really miss that. Yeah, I agree, I
wanted to know more about each of the characters before
they were in that situation. And I will say, pacing wise,
and I believe this is something that Fed's talked about
as well. Pacing wise, it does follow the first half
of the movie is far more in that alien slowburn
(29:29):
getting to the aliens, and then the second half is
more of an alien's kind of situation, lots of shooting,
lots of cool, gooey aliens. But I do think that
what's missing from that slowburn aspect is that interrogation of
like what are these relationships, Like how do they what
do they care about? Like what brought them together? What
(29:50):
do they pure And ironically is the one we get
to kind of know the most about just because we
learned that his mom was killed in a mining accident
where they basically to see the androids had to like
seal her in the mind. But we don't really get
a lot And I think, you know, you made a
great point when we were talking about this ahead of it.
One of the things that the movie is definitely kind
(30:11):
of missing is like a lot of the set dressing
is just references to old alien movies. Fun, but it
takes away from like I would like you you know,
what were you saying about Tyler, about his like interest
in the military.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
I thought that was Yeah, so there's like there's another
early in the film, when they first arrived on the
space station, you know, he's Tyler is giving these like
hand signism, like why are you giving these hand signals?
What's what's up with that? And that's our first hint
that Tyler is interested in the military. Maybe he wants
to join the Colonial Marines. And I thought it was
(30:45):
a real wasted opportunity to not we go to Tyler's apartment,
you don't see like to your point about the dressing, Yeah,
how about a poster for the Colonial Marines, how about
like some books about something, how about anything in that
living space that would suggest to me that that's an
interest to him. We open on Rain's bunk and it's
(31:07):
like anodyne. There's like nothing there. Uh, you know. Caren
was talking about the fact that we see that little
duck that little dunking duck. That's a callback to the
Alien film. That's great, But how about some stuff in
there that's personalized to these It makes it feel like
a living space. And again small note, really because I
(31:29):
loved everything else about the movie, But I I guess
what I'm saying is I wanted to love it more.
I want to love it so much more.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Than I do. I love the experience of it. I'm
gonna always be thinking about the animatronic alien and the
real animatronic face huggers. Like the way this movie looks
and feels is so fantastic, and I already do. Like
I said, I love the canon of like a I
would die for these kids, and like this is definitely
in that canon for me because I have a lot
(31:57):
of love Fatchi Renaut, who plays Tyler. He was in
Shadow and Bone and I saw he was so fantastic
in that. Kaylee Spenny, she's really, you know, giving that
like she was in the Oscar contention. She's been in
a twenty four movies and now she's here leading like
an action movie. I thought Aileen Woer's Navarro was easily
the coolest character who I wanted to know.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
More punched above her weight.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah yeah, And I also think that something that she
really represents that I think the film does well is
the interconnections between the Alien movies and then the Prometheus
movies that Ridley Scott came back and made, because Navarro
has that connection to this religious exploration and that is
really a huge part of Prometheus. And then obviously we
(32:39):
get die more direct connections when we sort of start
to learn about the black Goo from this animorphs and
that the alien, the big chap alien from the first
movie survived. So this does lead us on to one
more conversation point, which is once you get onto the ship,
there's all this beautiful practical effects, but they find a synthetic,
(33:00):
the dead body of a synthetic who is revealed to
be as you mentioned, Ash, but this is Brook, but
he looks like Ash, who was played by Ian Holm
in one of the most chilling performances in the franchise.
I'll never forget when he wraps that tight little magazine
up to stuff down Sigourney Weaver's throat. So this is
(33:22):
this is Rook, who's another He is the science officer
on this ship, and he is the same model. So
you have Ian Holm's face, I just don't look. His
family supported this, which I love and that's important. That's
all mask But why didn't they do it with an
actual physical cast of I believe that one of those
(33:43):
must still exist somewhere from the original movie. I think
that the CGI of it all took the movie, but
it still has that uncanny valley.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, I agree, I did. My only thought is that
they must have tried, and they couldn't get it to work,
couldn't get it to look anywhere near good enough. Now,
I suppose there's a world in which if you can't
get it to look anywhere near good enough, maybe make
it look a lot worse and you really tear it
up and so it's only barely recognizable. But I'm sure
(34:18):
that they tried that, and this must have been the best,
you know, the best option that they could have gone with.
It did it was for a movie that feels so tactile.
It was interesting. I let's talk about the phones. Characters
are phones in this.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Oh wow, wow, could you believe it?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
There's a lot of other parts of this, like I
I love the weapon design, I loved the I loved
the face huggers. Oh they think the face Huggers were
more of a front. That's something we've kind of not
seen before. Also, is a more direct threat from the
(34:58):
face huggers where yes, warm of them coming at you.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
And they did a really I think they did something
really smart as well, which is they're in the trailer.
They showed like all of the characters, Eileen Wu, you know,
Archie Renault, the Spike who played Beyond, they kind of
had these clips of them looking like they were getting
got by the face huggers. But actually they kind of
introduced this, if you can get the face hugger's horrific
(35:26):
tentacle out of your mouth before it implants the egg,
oh wait, you can maybe survive this. So we kind
of got this great horrific, very grotesque sequence where they're
all kind of fighting it first until it ultimately, you know,
gets at Navarro. But I thought that was really good.
I loved the face hugger scene where we finally got
(35:47):
to see it connect with Navarro. I thought that Eileen
Woo did an unreal job getting to do her own
version of that chest burster scene. I just generally did
think this was really fun. I loved getting to see
the proto pulse rife for kind of like the colonial
Marines having aliens. I also thought that there was a
there's a really really clever sequence that did something we'd
(36:09):
never seen before, which was this use of the anti
gravity with the acid blood when Spanny. That's really cool. Again.
I just think I'm like, David Johnson, give him an award, please,
because he just grounds this. It's like when you know
when they cost Adam Driver and Force Awakens, and the
whole time you're watching the movie, you're like, You're so
(36:31):
lucky that Adam Driver said he would play Kylo Ren
like you. This movie is great, and I obviously I
love the Force Awakens. I would die for my children Cannon,
it's definitely a part of it. But like when Adam
Driver is in that movie, You're like, this man is
bringing like Shakespearean Thespian levels of tragedy to this these
scenes with like Harrison Ford, and I feel like David
Johnson is that grounding kind of elevating force in this movie.
(36:56):
So and it's absolutely wild to see him from He
was in this absolutely delightful Hulu uh rom com called
Rye Rye Lane that was set in London in South
London and he's so charming and delightful in that. Please
go watch it. It's so good. But it was crazy
to then see him kind of playing this more complicated
(37:17):
like spooky figure when he you know, depending on which
andy we got, and I just thought it was like
really cool.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
He's also great in the first two seasons of Industry.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yes, oh my gosh, Industry season three, just saying if
you are looking for because this feels like there's it's
gonna be the new succession, right.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
This is as in as quick aside about Industry season
three on HBO and Max. It has definitely leveled up.
If you're watching season one and season two, you're trying
to get through it and you're wondering, is this is it? Really?
I don't know if this is for me. I promise
season three is thus far.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Coalesces is hitting three hard.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Anyway, back to the movie, I want to one final thing,
which is your thoughts on the engineer like alien xenomorph
human hybrid born from K's womb, bonded, bonded with her
unborn child, and let's talk about this alien. What did
(38:22):
you think of it? Also? Should this alien have tried
out for the NBA.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Definitely he should he should have been in the club
or shooting hoops. He's seven foot tall. You know what,
I'll be real with you. I thought it was very
clever design. I definitely liked that they made it look
like an engineer now knowing that this is now, knowing
(38:48):
that Fede has like confirmed that it is like it
was Buhn's baby. I also think this was probably Fede
doing some like, oh, incest baby with a xenomorph. I'm
not gonna lie. I'm just the lover of the original
xenomorph designs, and the Queen's aenomorph and like the alien
queen and basically anything Geiger does. So that that didn't
(39:11):
hit for me in like a spooky, like scary way.
I didn't think like, oh, I'm scared of this, but
I will say I did think it was like a cool,
unexpected twist. And I do think that every alien movie
needs to introduce some new version, and so I think
this was a unique way to bring together Prometheus and
the alien movies and kind of create something that was
(39:34):
really unique and never before seeing Carmen super producer Princess Carmen,
who's also an alien Stannus, you want to. Carmen was
terrified by the offspring, so it did. I think it
worked differently for other people.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
It was gonna look. I really liked it and was
completely creeped out by it. Yeah. Uh, it was really disgusting.
And they grow so fast. I mean the thing grew
to like seven foot.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, that was like it was twenty minutes. It was
like Twilight speed birth, like there giving birth and then
the baby and then the babies in the NBA. You know,
it's like so quickly, they grow up so fast. Okay,
So one thing I want to ask you quickly before
we end on this is like I feel like, because
the movie's made a lot of money and because it
(40:20):
was relatively affordable to make in the grand scheme of
like a dead poor Wolverine, I think this could lead
to more movies. But the question is is it gonna be.
I feel like they could do like a spin off
of this where they kind of follow Rain and Andy
because she said, you know, I believe she'll fix Andy.
They're both together, and they could kind of explore more
(40:43):
about like the mysterious life giving goo that we see
in Alien, that we see in Prometheus, and then we
now see in Alien Romulus, or they could just keep
making like weird anthology movies that fit more around different timelines.
I think I would the latter as much as I
want to see Andy, But like, what do you think, Like,
(41:04):
what do you think the next Alien movie is going
to be?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
There is, of course Noah Hawley's Alien Earth. Yes, which
is it's going.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
To be a true prequel, I guess saying.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
In some kind of place in its production life cycle.
We don't know where. I personally, I think that the
tried and true. Here's the thing about Alien Romulus. It
is directly lifted from the original Alien formula, which is
Haunted House in Space.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Trapped room, trapped Room.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
And I think that that that has a lot of
life and vitality in it, different places, different cast You
can do a lot of things with that, and you
can make pretty relatively cheap movies that people want to
see just based on that formula. Me personally, I would
I'm hoping to see. One of the things I liked
about Prometheus is that it evolved the story, and I
(42:01):
think that's what I want is I want those scares.
I want that monster movie, I want that Haunted House
in Space. But I'm hoping to see more of the world,
have it more fleshed out, maybe have there be more
challenges as we get more of these movies. But I
think one of the things that I'm really excited about
(42:21):
is that it's for sure we're gonna get that, We're
gonna get more opportunities for more alien movies. I agree
with how Gangbusters this film is going right now all
around the world.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
I definitely didn't expect. I mean, this came out what
like three weeks after Deadpool and Wouverine and managed to
take it off, which I don't know if anyone saw coming.
Also as well, FEDDEI did have a cool idea and
we'll leave you with this, which is he did an
interview I believe it was with Deadline where he said,
I want to do an alien versus preditor movie that's
half directed by me and half directed by Dan Trachtenberg
(42:55):
who made Prey. Now I want to see that. I mean,
I'm like Disney green Light that movie.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
It's like from Dusk Till Dawn but in Spain.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Oh, now we're talking.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
We like this movie. Hope you go hope you liked
it too. Up next, you want more Alien Romulus. We've
got more. We've got an interview with Alien Romulus star
Alien Wu, who plays Navarro.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Check that out.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
We're so excited to welcome Alien Wu, who plays Novarro
in Alien Romulus. Alien, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
Of course, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
I was reading about the process of you getting the role,
and it's so fun. I was wondering if you might
share that with us.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
I think it was February twenty twenty one. I was
back home in Vancouver having finished undergrad at NYU, and
my husband and I were actually working together when I
got the self tape. He was producing and I was
directing a bunch of high school students in a production
of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which is I was kind of
(44:17):
a fun odd job that he had gotten me. We
weren't married yet, and that was like one of his
schemes to get me to come back home from New York.
He was like, I got you a job. He can't
turn down a job, and I was like, yeah, I
really can't. And he made it first time working on
anything theater Shakespeare related. Yeah, it was. We were having
a blast, and you know, we were a month away
(44:39):
and this self tape request comes in from my manager Helen,
and she's like, bracket, this is alien because they don't
usually tell you what it is in the title when
it's such a big franchise. Yeah. We went over to
my husband's producing partners apartment to film it after like
a twelve hour rehearsal day because he had this really
(45:02):
cool setup with like the blue screen backdrop and oh wow. Yeah,
and I was like, yeah, let's let's use this because
mainly one of the scenes or a couple of the
scenes had the entire ensemble, and we thought it would
be a good idea to kind of like have two
people read with me so I wouldn't get confused and
(45:25):
help me with my eyelines. But yeah, I did watch
the first film before doing the tape because I had
never watched any of them before.
Speaker 5 (45:38):
Did I read your introduction was through your brother's action figure.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
Yes, this could tract. Yeah. So, while we moved to
Vancouver when we were still in elementary school, and my
mom as an incentive to get us to really learn English,
if we did well at our English class, like, she
(46:04):
signed us up for outside of school English classes to
help us, you know, get better faster. If we did
well at those. Every week, she'd bring my brother and
I to like this Action figure store every Friday and
we would get to pick out a toy. But it's
really just like me following my older brother around and
watching what he would pick out. And he'd always give
(46:27):
me like a big introduction or like description of who
this is, what universe they're from, what powers they have.
But one day, like a xenomorph showed up. I didn't
know what it was, and I was like, this is weird,
and he's like, don't worry about it. I'll tell you
about next week's but this one's just for me.
Speaker 5 (46:47):
Has he seen you in the movie yet?
Speaker 4 (46:50):
No? He hasn't.
Speaker 6 (46:51):
Oh yeah, David, my older brother David, He like we
have a funny relationship.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
Like he's the only person I feel like in my
life who's like never impressed with what I do. It's
just like you will always be like my stupid, annoying
little sister who would not leave me alone ever growing up,
who I always have to clean up after because like
I threw a lot of parties during high school and
(47:26):
he would My parents would assign him as like babysitter
and he would have to like show up at these
parties and like help clean up and like like clean
puke off the floor, so like and be like stop
smoking in the backyard and like drive my drunk friends home.
(47:49):
And he wouldn't get to like drink and have fun
at these parties. So that's that's kind of our relationship,
which which I think honestly is very good for me,
Like it keeps me very grounded, humble. Yeah, so I
think he'll see it at some point, but I think
when it all dies down and like he gets to
like see it and by himself, you know, in our hometown.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
So sometimes when you send in a self tape, you
know you're waiting. You don't know how, you know, you
don't know what the what the reaction is. How quick
did the process happen? After sending in the tape, Oh,
it was.
Speaker 4 (48:28):
The next day they were like, they want to do
a zoom callback. I was like, great, I'd never gotten
a zoom callback from doing a self tape before. I
had only been with my agent, my manager, Helen, for
a year up to that point, and she was great.
She sent me things like back to back to back
and I would tape for them, and I feel like
(48:49):
it really built like that audition muscle in me. But
that was truthfully the first a callback that I got.
And then yeah, I did the callback, met Mary Renew
and Sydney. They were great to give me a couple
of notes. I did it like twice, and then two
days after I had that call back, they sent me
(49:11):
the full script, had me read it, and then I
was on a call with Fede who was in Budapestuary
and then he kind of gave me the role during
the call like that call, but I didn't really know
that that was what was going on. It was like,
(49:33):
so you you down to do this, and I was like, yeah,
this is are you tricking me? Because you know, my
my manager and my husband as well, who works mainly
as a film producer, they warned me. They're like, hey,
you have to wait for the official contract from studio. Like,
(49:58):
don't get your hopes up. There's a lot lot of
horror stories with actors getting in the process of getting
roles that like last minute they pull out and it's
like getting the rug pulled out from under them. It's
the worst feelings. So like, just really stay grounded, plant
your feet and we wait no matter what happens on
the zoom call we wait until your name is on
(50:20):
a piece of paper underneath the line where you can
sign your name. I was like, okay, got it. So
when he said that, I was like, they warned me
about this.
Speaker 5 (50:32):
It's funny. We'll talk to us about the first time
you walk on set.
Speaker 4 (50:36):
Oh man, I was so never been to Budapest before.
A beautiful, beautiful country. And then the studio is huge.
It's where they also filmed like Doom Part one and
part two, so it's like giant, giant buildings that look
like warehouses. And Fete is giving me, Archie and Spike
(51:03):
a tour. So we just went in and every studio
had like different sets were built in them, and I
was just like can I film this? I'm very like
or is that not allowed? But yeah, he was just
so excited to was so excited to show us everything.
It truly was like his his baby.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
You know, I've read that, And this is kind of
unique for feature films that it was filmed in order.
Speaker 4 (51:30):
Yes, it was a film all chronologically.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
That's wild. So your first scene is the first thing
that you did after arriving on set?
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Wow? So what was that like?
Speaker 4 (51:45):
It was such. I mean, this is my first feature film.
I had no idea what I was. I was like,
is this normal? Do we always shoot in chronological order?
And everybody was like, no, this never happens. I was like, oh, okay,
well this is a treat. I think it really kicked
in afterwards. Oh, I just got a miss call from
(52:10):
wonder what's going on. I'll call him back if.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
You want to close it of a text? Wee can
you don't want to?
Speaker 4 (52:19):
No? No, it's okay, I like to. Yeah, it didn't
for the chronological part. Oh, he's really calling again.
Speaker 1 (52:28):
Okay, yeah, we'll meet the Yeah, feel free to.
Speaker 4 (52:33):
Meet in Sorry guys.
Speaker 5 (52:37):
Oh my god, that was the sweetest thing.
Speaker 4 (52:39):
He's a sweet, sweet man. So just called me. I
missed the first one, but I picked up the second one.
He was like, this, this movie is making so much money.
I'm not very good with numbers, he said the number,
but it's making a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
In the China market, it really is.
Speaker 4 (52:56):
And yeah, and he said there's not like a massive
cult following in China, so it really is just credits
to us and specifically me. That was very sweet because
this is the thing even in the audition request. They
were like, if you speak another language, please do one
(53:17):
of the tapes in the other language that you speak.
So I did that. Yeah, I've never seen that before.
I've never experienced that with a tape before. And after
we got on set, he was like, hey, your tapes,
those Mandarin takes that you did were so cool. Do
you mind if we bring some of that while filming
(53:37):
and like brainstorm some moments where Navarro would speak in
her mother tongue. So there's a couple moments in the
film where I got to speak Mandarin and I'm getting
some like traction like just on Instagram and stuff like
that of people being like, wow, this is this is
(53:58):
so special. First Asia an actress in this franchise and
she's speaking Mandarin. This is so cool.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
That is really cool. How did you choose the moments?
Speaker 4 (54:11):
Like what were the I went for the private moments.
I went for the more private moments that Navarro was having.
And really it was like very collaborative with Fei. He
would be like half the time he'd be like, hey,
I think this is a and I was like, yes,
I agree. I was just going to go to you
and say that maybe it's here. Yeah, And he'd be
(54:34):
like saying maybe something like this, and I'll be like, okay, okay,
I got you. And then I would like try to
come up with something and like call my mom and
call my husband right before we roll and be like,
does this make sense? Because my Mandarin is not perfect?
Like it's been a long time since I've been in
an environment where it's all Mandarin speaking, so I feel
like I kind of speak it brokenly.
Speaker 5 (54:55):
That he seems like such a actor's director as watch
a bunch of like videos with him and talking about
his process and everything. And one thing that really stuck
out to me that that was interesting, is it sometimes
he'll barbecue for the cast and crew, he said, especially
if there's like a really difficult day or week ahead,
like to sort of prep them. I was wondering if
(55:16):
he barbecued for you guys, and if so, can you
raise his food so good?
Speaker 4 (55:21):
Such good barbecue? He he brings the meat from Uruguay.
I'm not kidding, he like, he puts, yes, I don't
know how you did that. He's like, guys, this is
meat from Uruguay arrived this morning. And he barbecues for
the entire cast and crew, like hundreds and hundreds of
(55:43):
thousands of people. And he says this is a tradition
of his and he does this every film that he's directing.
Before we start shooting. Wow, and like his his wife
is like chopping up the bread and making the chimmy
churry and the salad, and his uncle is there and
his kids are running around like it's the best, it's
(56:05):
the best vibes.
Speaker 1 (56:07):
That is so cool, you know, it struck me thinking
about this movie, which is notable for use of extensive
use of really practical like in camera effects, and it's
so interesting that your self tape like had a blue screen,
Like Yeah, I talk to us about like the contrast
(56:30):
between you know, going from this self tape and this
really quick process to then ending up on set where
you know, you've got a chest burster thing like on
you three chess burster. Yeah, there's like what there's water
and grease and stuff dripping off everything. I talked to
Loube apparently, yeah, Loube, apparently you're stuck in a hole
(56:52):
for a period of time, So what is that? What's that?
Speaker 5 (56:55):
Like?
Speaker 7 (56:56):
That was really crazy. I really just tried to take
it one day out of time. You're honest, with y'all,
and I think folmin in chronological order again really helped
with that because like you could track with the script
as we went on really.
Speaker 4 (57:13):
Easily, and it came very naturally. The journey of her downfall,
which is also very short, yeah, because it just it
happens and then all shit goes down once it once
she's attacked, everything happens super fast paced. So yeah, that
was very exhilarating. It's just like, Okay, face hugger's check,
(57:35):
We've done a week of that, next week the chess
burser check, and then okay, let's do the appendage coming
out of my mouth with second You know, we kept
looking forward to that moment and it never came on tip.
Right before I was stepping off set, they were like, yeah,
that's right, we haven't shot.
Speaker 8 (57:55):
That one scene one moment yet. Let's let's do that
with second unit. And I was like, damn, I wish
I got to do it with FEddi. But once we
started filming that, I was like, Okay, it makes a
lot of sense that we're doing this on second unit
because it's just like a very technical shot and it's
like one set up and yeah, we spent like I
(58:17):
think six seven hours doing that one one take, over
and over and over.
Speaker 5 (58:22):
This is where you're pulling the face hugger off you.
Speaker 4 (58:25):
Yes, everybody thinks it's CGI, but it's not.
Speaker 5 (58:28):
Wow holy yow.
Speaker 4 (58:31):
And no, no, it doesn't actually go all the way
down to my stomach. I didn't have to swallow a
thing every take.
Speaker 1 (58:41):
As a producer, director yourself, were you able to glean
anything from being on set that you're like, oh, this
is this will help me as I evolve in my career.
Speaker 4 (58:54):
Two things Fedi's kindness. Kindness as the director goes such
a long way, especially when the task at hand is
very large and challenging. Yeah, his patience and his kindness.
And then that leads to my second thing. When you
have that, it's easier to get everyone to have the
(59:15):
mentality of like, let's get this shot. We either have
this or we don't. We have to do this for
the audience and really honor what their experience, what experience
we want them to have and aim for the fucking stars.
If you aim for it, then there's that's the only
(59:36):
possible way that you might have a chance of reaching
that well.
Speaker 1 (59:39):
Alien the movie is a huge hit, You're a big
part of that. Congratulations on the success of the film
and your success, and thank you so much for joining
us again.
Speaker 4 (59:49):
Thank you guys so much. This is lovely much.
Speaker 1 (59:52):
Thanks to Alien Wu for joining us. Coming up on
X ray Vision, we're gonna be diving into Godzilla, Monster Island,
Summer Cambriton by somebody who is on this it's recording session,
and then we're gonna be recapping Rings of Power season one.
Oh baby, stay tuned for that. And that's it for
this episode. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kenseepsion and Rosie
Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive
producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer
is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and
Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman
and Heidi A discolled moderata
Warning, Today's episode contains spoilers for Alien Romulus in theaters now,
so if you haven't seen it, let's see it then listen. Suit. Hello,
(00:29):
my name is Jason and I'm Merday Night and welcome
back the Extra Vision of podcast where we dive deep.
It's your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture coming
to you from our podcasts where we're bringing you to
action packed episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
In today's action Packed episode, previously on, there is news, news, news,
the Acolytes been casting, rip to that show black Smith
Wukong is here and shadd James Streemis, shadd those steam records,
borderlines for trailer, secret level trailer, some sad news from
the world of anime, and a new date for Marvel Rivals.
(01:11):
There's all kinds of news and we're getting into it.
In the airlock, we are breaking down Alien Romulus, Fede
Alvarez's box office smash hit, So if you haven't listened,
make sure you go back. I watched that movie before
you come in here because it's gonna be all spoilers.
And then we have a special guest star as Jason
(01:31):
interviews one of the fantastic stars of Alien Romulus Aileen lou.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Up next. Previously on Well, folks, we woke up to
some crazy news this morning. The Acolyte has been canceled.
There will be no season two. This is reported by
all the trades, Deadline, forty, et cetera. The show ended
(01:58):
up with a seventy eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But
I think it's fair to say there was some divisions.
It was certainly divisive in terms of ratings. It was
the worst performing Star Wars show. Now, a quick note
about ratings. It's impossible to get accurate streaming ratings from
(02:20):
any of the streamers, so here you're kind of, uh,
We're always going to be referencing either Nielsen data or
Illuminate Data, some third party data site. And the thing
is their formulas are all different and have a lot
to do with like engagement in social media. The streamers
themselves would say that's not accurate. That aside, it certainly
(02:45):
appears that The Ecolyte was in terms of watches, in
terms of ratings, the worst performing and fell off over
the course of the series. And that is, you know,
in addition to the pretty toxic conversation around the show.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
It was hammered.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I definitely feel like we obviously can't know what's going
on in an exact mind, but I do feel like
this was surprising to me because you know the surprised.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
The show had a very passionate fandom that loved it,
and it also was a conversation driver in a way
I think Disney has been seeking for their shows. That
hasn't necessarily happened this year. But as you say, it
was very divisive. I would hope that this is not,
(03:38):
you know, a case where they're listening to the most
negative parts of the fandom and choosing to cancel a
show based on that. I would say something we need
to notice. The show was incredibly expensive. It was one
hundred and eighty million dollars apparently according to Disney, which,
by the way, like that's all that's a Disney problem.
Like if you want to make the show for less money,
(03:58):
give them less money. Like if you don't have the
money to make one hundred and eighty million dollar show,
which I know you do, Disney, then don't give it
to them, you know, like, let's let's plan ahead. But
I think there was so much more to come from this.
I also will say this is all rumors, of course,
but the Internet has noticed some interesting choices, which are
like they had Manny Jacinto at D twenty three like
(04:22):
a week ago, and they had a thirty foot projected
image of him on the wall that people could take
pictures with, which I've heard was very popular because who
didn't love crime here. They also then canceled the show
on his birthday. Seems thoughtless if this was always going
to be the case. Maybe we're looking at a situation
here where there's no Acolyte season two, but we will
(04:45):
see these characters and stories be continued in a high
republic style movie or something.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
That would not surprise me. I think this is in
certain specs. It's not surprising because of the ratings. I
think if if the viewership was there, then you could
they could shrug off the conversation. And I think more broadly,
(05:14):
Star Wars is kind of in a weird spot right
now where they are beholds into nostalgia in a way
that no other ip really is. They're caught between a
segment of the fan base that wants Star Wars the
way it has always been delivered to them. Now, I
think that the way that that that picture of a
(05:36):
nostalgic Star Wars is a myth in large part, uh,
and I think allies the content of the original trilogy
in a large way. That said, I it's it's a
tough spot because if you innovate, if you do something
interesting people, there's going to be a segment of the
(05:58):
fan base that absolutely hates it. And then if you
do the same old Star Wars stuff, you're really not
evolving the IP or doing anything that might bring in
more fans exactly and keep the community vibrant. So it's
just a tough spot and definitely a bummer.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Also interesting that they just straight up canceled it rather
than leaving it in kind of you know, limbo, like
a lot of these shows and movies end up being
like it's very rare for them to just be like
this is over, Like it's not happening, it's canceled. So
I think that's very interesting. Apparently there is rumors that
(06:39):
they had started working on season two, and that's why
they have to say it was canceled because Season two
kind of already existed. I will say one thing, our
discord is absolutely bummed. They were big Acolyte fans in there,
so sending love to the discord today, and I understand.
I hope we will get to see these stories and
themes and characters continued, because in the age of streaming
(07:00):
we live in now, stuff gets canceled so quickly. And
there's definitely been a lot of hilarious memes like the
Clone Wars never would have made it past you know,
season one in this era, so it's like.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
That's maybe true. Although I will say animated Flies under
the Radar continues incredibly influential. I think, in my opinion,
is probably primarily responsible for keeping people in touch with
Star Wars and growing new audience. But it's also like
something that the nostalgia heads, the hardcore nostalgia peeps, I
(07:35):
think broadly.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Ignore, yeah, the most part.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Next up, there is a new hit video game, and
it is Black Myth Wukan. The game has already become
in its short life as a release, has already become
the second most played game on scheme with why two
and a half million concurrent players behind PUBG still doing
(08:05):
it by way, PUBJ still.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Doing it, still doing it, basically.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Still doing it now Steam numbers. Of course, we're not
taking to account players using the Epic Game Store, which
is platform or playing on PS five, which is wild
separate ecosystem. This a game from a Chinese developer, has
had some controversy around it related to an email they
(08:29):
sent around to influencers as they were kind of like
ginning up excitement for the game, basically saying don't mention
COVID nineteen, we get it okay, but also no quote,
no feminist propaganda, which is interesting. Sure that said blackmith Willkon.
It's the gameplay looks pretty crazy, the bosses look incredibly huge,
(08:53):
and this game looks to be a juggernaut in the making.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, And the truth is, like I do deeply loved
Journey to the West and like the Monkey.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
King Wukan is the main character and Journey to the West,
which is huge hit in China and much of Asia.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, and it's like it's a it's a it's like
a sixteenth century Chinese novel that basically a lot of
people think it created the hero's journey. If you're watching
something like Avatar the Last Airbender, you're really watching something
that's very influenced by Journey to the West. So I
do think this is really interesting. The CEO of the
game company, who said, now that email he is. You know,
(09:30):
he has said some wild things in the past, but
sometimes you just gotta ignore it and just look at
a game. So it'll be interesting to see and I'm
interested to play this. I'm interested if any of our
our discord users are playing it, because the reviews are
pretty crazy. People say it's just a total whirlwind and
kind of a bit of an unexpected smash. I think.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Next up more video game stuff. Borderland's four has released
a teaser trailer. Not much that no gameplay, but I'm
excited on the less as a fan of the Venerable
Borderlands looter shooter franchise, I do enjoy some Borderlands.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, this is really great. I think I've been very
impressed with the Boardlands guy who was like, hey, you
love the game so much that you hated this bad movie.
Guess what, Bordlands four Finally it's finally coming out. He
was like, how can I turn this to my favor?
He's like, I didn't spend one hundred and ten million
dollars making this movie. But the reason people hate the
movie is because they love the games. So guess what,
(10:28):
Baby Boardlands for trailer They could not get that out
quick enough, and I respect it.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
More kind of video video games adjacent video games adjacent.
The trailer for Secret Level on Amazon Prime Videos this
is wild. This comes from the creative team behind Love,
Death and Robots, which, if you were a fan of Love,
Death and Robots on Netflix, this looks to be for you.
(10:55):
And it's an anthology series with each episode based around
a different game slash video game franchise, including Dungeons and Dragons,
Honor of Kings, Mega Man, pac Man, Warhammer, Warhammer forty
K So uh looks pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah. I also feel like Secret Level is the correct
name because the way that they kept this under wraps
until now is kind of super impressive when you have
something as broad as like pac Man and Outer Worlds,
you know, God of War episode as an Armored Corps.
So I'm extremely interested to see how this lands because
(11:35):
I do think that the way the IP is being
used right now, like with this Star Wars stuff, right like,
you invest all this money into one show and if
it doesn't work, then you know you're fucked, basically, So
I do think this idea of more like anthology ips
where you try stuff out and see what works and
see what people are drawn to. That feels like it's
(11:57):
quite could be a war for the future kind of
of what these companies are gonna do. Apparently looks like
Keanu Reeves is going to be involved, which you know,
always a good thing. We love to see him.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Marv rivals. We have a release dates. What are you
doing for the holiday season? I don't what I'll be
doing playing December four, it's gonna be free to play,
which means you're gonna pay for those skins.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Folks, Baby, are you ready to pay for Captain America?
Is a Nazi skin? Or ever hide your cat? They
gonna be chotching you five dollars for that. But yeah,
it looks good. It looks like an Overwatch reskin, which
we always knew it would do. Side I'm like, let me,
let me just let me just kill some I mean,
(12:45):
let me just battle some people in the guise of
a character I enjoy.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Looks great. I can't wait to get in there with you.
Rosie problems, because a.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Lot of problems.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Next up new Megalopolis trailer, which is notable for this
Megalopolis of course. The Francis Ford Coppola latest Francis Ford
Coppola movie that that famously features a part of the
movie in which a actor has to come out and address
the screen. I don't know how they're gonna do this
(13:17):
and wide release. That said, here's what was notable to
me about this trailer. The trailer opens and I've never
seen this before. The trailer opens with a basically Francis
Ford Coppol's resume starting oh yeah, Father, and and a
like review from when that movie was released to listen
(13:40):
to nineteen seventy two The Godfather, and then some pan
yeah the movie nineteen seventy nine Apocalypse. Now, Rex Reid says,
and irredeemable piece of trash.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
This man is so stressed.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Never seen this before. This guy he's been and France
is basically saying it. And people are gonna shoo on
this fucking movie, like the critic is gonna shoot on
it before it's released, and guess what, they're wrong.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
He's still gonna be great. Dude. This man is absolutely wild.
I feel like this is especially.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Fiery after all these kind of like on set issues
about he's been, like videos of him like kissing extras
and saying like I'm getting them into the party.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Mood baby like if I don't love that, so I
feel like he's on a he's on a train to
Frants for Coppola Land. Then it's maybe it's gonna crash.
Maybe he's gonna make it there and make a billion dollars.
Who knows. It's absolutely bonkers, this tray Lie. I couldn't
believe he did it.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Uh well. The film has a crack ensemble cast, including
Adam Driver, giancarlois Posito, Natalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shila Buff,
the disgraced Shilah Buff, everybody's favorite Hollywood right wing conservatives
On Voight, Laurence Fishburg, Tylie Shier, Jesus Schwartzman.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
And more.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, I believe Aubrey Plaza, which just absolutely bonkers, just
like completely wild. Chloe Feynman from SNL, Yeah, sure love it.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
That's the of the Warriors Fame and other great features
fam Tebe Sweeney. Yeah, Dustin Hoffman, he's there with his nephew, Grace.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Vanderwall, who I believe was on American Idol. Crazy, that's truly,
I mean, who knows what this movie is gonna be? Like,
this is gonna be absolutely Boncaus. Also, I just want
to say, this is a Lionsgate movie, right, This is
Lionsgate is doing some wild releases this year because lions
Gate is also buying The Crow, which we will talk
about another date. But I feel like who's out here
(15:50):
doing it? Like Lionsgate. They're putting the wildest stuff out
right now. And they picked up Cosmopolis and they're gonna
be making some kids come out from behind the popcorn
desk and speak to Adam Driver on that big screen.
I believe it.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
And then finally Sad News goes to the shell and bayonet.
A voice actress at Suko Tanaka has passed at age
sixty one, whiches so young? Uh thoughts and to her
family and.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Ye very just a huge kind of beacon in the
in the voice acting space.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And yeah, folks, let's jump out of your sternum, oh
like in like a freshly hatched alien to talk about
alien robins. Up next, we're stepping out of the air
(16:53):
lock to discuss alien romulus in theaters.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Now, Roses big hit, Baby.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
It's a huge all around the world.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
People are enjoying it, people are feeling it, people are
loving it, people are having conversations about which is exactly
what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Well, Rosie, I'll start. I like this movie. This is
a fun this is a fun movie, A good prequel.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
I believe. I believe they're calling it an intquel now
because it's between alien and aliens.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
A delightful interquol.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I'd never heard of that phrase before this week, but
there it is.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I love the practical effects. I love the more of
a starring role for the face huggers, which was oh
yeah fun.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
The animatronics Animore very impressive, very scary.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Was great, and I really enjoyed David Johnson as as Andy.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
That was the breakout.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Officials agreed, what did you think of the film?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I Fedda has Eddy Alva
as the director has made stuff that I really like,
like beebdev movies, made stuff that I like a little
bit less, like don't Breathe but visual and don't Breathe
too ooh. But the vision that he had for this movie,
(18:18):
the aesthetic of the movie, I think it's really.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
I think it's nice to be back in the world
of alien that you can kind of deeply immediately recognize.
It's grubby, it's gross, it's dark. You're on a mining colony,
you want to get out, you're a blue collar worker,
and you're going to be stopped by an alien. It's
incredibly bleak in a way that I think Edde does well.
I really liked it in the cinema. I think it's
(18:44):
a very enjoyable movie experience. Also, I have like a
cannon of movies and TV shows where like I will
forgive a lot of stuff if it's just like a
bunch of kids trying to get stuff done. So I'm like,
this is in the I would dive my children cannon.
Apart from Bjorn, I'm glad he died, but otherwise I
would be there. I would have been there fighting alongside Anna. Yeah,
(19:07):
I thought I definitely David Johnson as Andy, I think
is if he wasn't in this movie, I do not
think the reviews would be as good because I think
the one thing this script does really well that's very
interesting is it explores the notion of being a synthetic
in the alien world and what that means and how
(19:28):
much agency you have. And David Johnson gets to play
two different roles that are really really powerful, and one
of them is really scary and the other is really
kind of melancholic, and I just think he does such
an incredible job. Kaylee Spenny, she's great. She's a great
action e lead. She's she's got her muscles out. She
(19:48):
can hold he you know, a pulse rifle. I think
that there was some character actors here who were slightly wasted.
Isabella McCard from the beloved smash hit family movie Madam Webb. Yeah,
who is about to behold Go?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Well, let's quickly recap the film and then get into
a kind of deeper discussion. We're going to recap this
off the top of our heads. So we open on
a corporate planet that's basically all about mining and scavenging
a whalean Utani planet where you have to hit a
(20:27):
certain quota of I guess scavenge or hours or currency.
It's unclear what the number is, but you have to
hit this number before you're allowed to leave. So it's
kind of like the old school, like owing your life
to the company's store type of situation of like the
late nineteenth early twentieth century Industrial Revolution type thing, and.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
If they need more workers, they will just extend your time,
right so there's no it's not fair whalen Utani. This
is the ultimate like working class factory town where people
just dying from being in the mind from Black Lung.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
There's like two thousands, about two thousand people live there
in total, and part of that population is our main cast.
There is Rain played by Kaylee Spainey. There is Andy,
her artificial person brother, a gift from her father who
has passed away in the minds we believe.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Uh. There is Tyler, who is I believe Rain's ex right.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
It feels like the coding there is that he is
her ex.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah. There is kay who is pregnant with a baby
of unknown providence. We will discuss this play by further length.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Isabella Mcott who is going to be Hawk Girl in
the James Gun of Us and who was recently Ranya
and Madame Webb.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Las and then there is Bjorn played by Spike Fearn
Oh boo, I hate good acting Spike, and Alien Wu
plays Navarro. Yes, we'll be stay tuned for Alien Wu interview.
And basically they hit upon a scheme by which they
can leave the planet by taking their their like Junker
(22:20):
scavenger craft and outfitting it with enough cryo fuel to
power the the cryo chambers so that they can go
into hibernation for a nine year trip to a planet
where the sun actually shines, because on this planet it's
(22:40):
raining all the time and it sucks. And the only
way they can do that is by getting enough cryo
fuel to make the trip.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And keep the described for like nine years.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
For nine years, and they've discovered that there is like
a wrecked Whyland Utahani space station that's just kind of
like floating right above the planet, so they go up
there turns out to be a research facility, and it
turns out this research facility is like chock a block
(23:13):
with face huggers and other aliens and a more research.
There's like a decommission destroyed artificial person there played by
a beyond life ian home and long story short, the
aliens come out, Everybody except for Rain gets killed. She
(23:41):
ultimately defeats the alien. The final boss alien turns out
to be a hybrid alien human baby that gives birth
to is really scary, and now with enough cryo fuel
to make the trip, she leaves her last log, puts
(24:02):
Andy in the hibernation chamber, puts herself in the hibernation
chamber and heads for the new planet. Okay, you kind
of hit on it in your statement up top. I
do think and this is my one nitpick. Here's my nitpick.
I love everything about this movie. I love the face huggers.
I love the practical effects. I think that looks as
(24:25):
it looks astoundingly good. The cast is wonderful. I do
think the one thing I was craving, and I was
craving it kind of significantly, was just like a little
deeper understanding of these characters. I do feel like Kay,
basically all we know about her is she's pregnant. That's
(24:46):
who is she? What does she dream of? What does
she want to do? What does she hate? Like I
kind of don't know Jorn. I know he hates androids,
and that's kind of it. Like Tyler, same thing. He
feels a little and the characters feel a little thin
to me now you mentioned it. I do think David
(25:07):
Johnson gives a tour to force here as Andy. Yeah,
and he's given a wide range of Like there's Andy
who is more hobbled intellectually and physically and is not
kind of he's half destroyed. He you know, Rain keeps
having to reboot him. Then he gets an upgrade and
all of a sudden, he's a much more competent, much sharper,
(25:29):
slightly more ominous figure. And that kind of wide range
is cool. Kaylee Spiney is awesome. Part of that is
just like how much he's on the screen. But I
do I did find myself wishing that I knew more
about these characters, that there had been more in this
movie for me to hold on to, so that I
(25:51):
cared about these characters more like I should. At a
certain point, I'm like, God, I hope you aren't dies,
and I shouldn't. I feel like I shouldn't be feeling
that guys should.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Not feel like, you know what this guy gets. I
do think that that is intentional, and I think it
comes with him specifically, and I do think it comes
down to something where we were talking about this pre production.
So let's talk about the because I've just discovered something
and I think it makes that more intentional. So let's
(26:21):
talk about Kay's father, Like, who.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Is I mean is I thought it was clearly born.
Other people are saying.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
No, Well, I also believed it was borne because she says,
you know, he's he's that ass h's some asshole, and
then they're always calling him an asshole, and he's clearly
kind of creepy and he's got a bad vibe, and
there's like a scene where it really feels like that
is implied. And in a Reddit thread, somebody supposed that,
(26:52):
and FEddi Alvarez jumped in and said, yeah, you're right,
and this is actually a very fede thing because something
that was pointed out in our pre production and people
are very upset about and Reddit, is that that Cousins
in the screen? Yeah, but no, that's Freddy says. It's
it's happening baby, And if you've seen Don't Breathe, this
man probably does not have a problem with that.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I mean, I'll just say that's true. I mean, I'll
just say, of the Cousins thing, there's two thousand people
that live on this planet, like you've gotta you've got
to get busy somehow, and I think that obviously it's
not an ideal situation, but people, you know, life finds
a way, you.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
You simply can't have the same kind of uh red line,
you know, criteria for finding a mate on a planet
where there's probably less people that live there than live
on your street. Yeah, like in certain areas of the country.
(27:53):
So I just feel like that didn't that didn't bump me.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah. That also I'm a big fan of Uh. I'm
a big fan of the fact that Feddy just made
his own like Reddit profile and then he kept getting
in trouble on Reddit because they were saying he was
impersonating himself because he was going around just like answering
people's questions about the movie and read it was like
you are not Freeddy Alvarez and he was like, no,
(28:19):
I am, I really am. I promise. But yeah, I
think I definitely think that something about the First Alien
movie that makes it so special is look, Okay, first
of all, doesn't hurt that it has like a cast
of just absolutely stella character actors who would go on
to you know, become huge stars like Ian Holm and
(28:40):
yeaf At Koto and you know John Hurt, you know
you have and and I do think here they do
channel that because Isabella McCart is going to be a
huge star.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
But there there was this there was this like ultimate
esque banter. Yeah, in that movie exact it's where they're
talking about their shares, and there all these little things
that add texture exactly where you know, you know what
they care about, you kind of understand what the situation
of working for this company.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Is, you understand really miss that. Yeah, I agree, I
wanted to know more about each of the characters before
they were in that situation. And I will say, pacing wise,
and I believe this is something that Fed's talked about
as well. Pacing wise, it does follow the first half
of the movie is far more in that alien slowburn
(29:29):
getting to the aliens, and then the second half is
more of an alien's kind of situation, lots of shooting,
lots of cool, gooey aliens. But I do think that
what's missing from that slowburn aspect is that interrogation of
like what are these relationships, Like how do they what
do they care about? Like what brought them together? What
(29:50):
do they pure And ironically is the one we get
to kind of know the most about just because we
learned that his mom was killed in a mining accident
where they basically to see the androids had to like
seal her in the mind. But we don't really get
a lot And I think, you know, you made a
great point when we were talking about this ahead of it.
One of the things that the movie is definitely kind
(30:11):
of missing is like a lot of the set dressing
is just references to old alien movies. Fun, but it
takes away from like I would like you you know,
what were you saying about Tyler, about his like interest
in the military.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
I thought that was Yeah, so there's like there's another
early in the film, when they first arrived on the
space station, you know, he's Tyler is giving these like
hand signism, like why are you giving these hand signals?
What's what's up with that? And that's our first hint
that Tyler is interested in the military. Maybe he wants
to join the Colonial Marines. And I thought it was
(30:45):
a real wasted opportunity to not we go to Tyler's apartment,
you don't see like to your point about the dressing, Yeah,
how about a poster for the Colonial Marines, how about
like some books about something, how about anything in that
living space that would suggest to me that that's an
interest to him. We open on Rain's bunk and it's
(31:07):
like anodyne. There's like nothing there. Uh, you know. Caren
was talking about the fact that we see that little
duck that little dunking duck. That's a callback to the
Alien film. That's great, But how about some stuff in
there that's personalized to these It makes it feel like
a living space. And again small note, really because I
(31:29):
loved everything else about the movie, But I I guess
what I'm saying is I wanted to love it more.
I want to love it so much more.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Than I do. I love the experience of it. I'm
gonna always be thinking about the animatronic alien and the
real animatronic face huggers. Like the way this movie looks
and feels is so fantastic, and I already do. Like
I said, I love the canon of like a I
would die for these kids, and like this is definitely
in that canon for me because I have a lot
(31:57):
of love Fatchi Renaut, who plays Tyler. He was in
Shadow and Bone and I saw he was so fantastic
in that. Kaylee Spenny, she's really, you know, giving that
like she was in the Oscar contention. She's been in
a twenty four movies and now she's here leading like
an action movie. I thought Aileen Woer's Navarro was easily
the coolest character who I wanted to know.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
More punched above her weight.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah yeah, And I also think that something that she
really represents that I think the film does well is
the interconnections between the Alien movies and then the Prometheus
movies that Ridley Scott came back and made, because Navarro
has that connection to this religious exploration and that is
really a huge part of Prometheus. And then obviously we
(32:39):
get die more direct connections when we sort of start
to learn about the black Goo from this animorphs and
that the alien, the big chap alien from the first
movie survived. So this does lead us on to one
more conversation point, which is once you get onto the ship,
there's all this beautiful practical effects, but they find a synthetic,
(33:00):
the dead body of a synthetic who is revealed to
be as you mentioned, Ash, but this is Brook, but
he looks like Ash, who was played by Ian Holm
in one of the most chilling performances in the franchise.
I'll never forget when he wraps that tight little magazine
up to stuff down Sigourney Weaver's throat. So this is
(33:22):
this is Rook, who's another He is the science officer
on this ship, and he is the same model. So
you have Ian Holm's face, I just don't look. His
family supported this, which I love and that's important. That's
all mask But why didn't they do it with an
actual physical cast of I believe that one of those
(33:43):
must still exist somewhere from the original movie. I think
that the CGI of it all took the movie, but
it still has that uncanny valley.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, I agree, I did. My only thought is that
they must have tried, and they couldn't get it to work,
couldn't get it to look anywhere near good enough. Now,
I suppose there's a world in which if you can't
get it to look anywhere near good enough, maybe make
it look a lot worse and you really tear it
up and so it's only barely recognizable. But I'm sure
(34:18):
that they tried that, and this must have been the best,
you know, the best option that they could have gone with.
It did it was for a movie that feels so tactile.
It was interesting. I let's talk about the phones. Characters
are phones in this.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Oh wow, wow, could you believe it?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
There's a lot of other parts of this, like I
I love the weapon design, I loved the I loved
the face huggers. Oh they think the face Huggers were
more of a front. That's something we've kind of not
seen before. Also, is a more direct threat from the
(34:58):
face huggers where yes, warm of them coming at you.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
And they did a really I think they did something
really smart as well, which is they're in the trailer.
They showed like all of the characters, Eileen Wu, you know,
Archie Renault, the Spike who played Beyond, they kind of
had these clips of them looking like they were getting
got by the face huggers. But actually they kind of
introduced this, if you can get the face hugger's horrific
(35:26):
tentacle out of your mouth before it implants the egg,
oh wait, you can maybe survive this. So we kind
of got this great horrific, very grotesque sequence where they're
all kind of fighting it first until it ultimately, you know,
gets at Navarro. But I thought that was really good.
I loved the face hugger scene where we finally got
(35:47):
to see it connect with Navarro. I thought that Eileen
Woo did an unreal job getting to do her own
version of that chest burster scene. I just generally did
think this was really fun. I loved getting to see
the proto pulse rife for kind of like the colonial
Marines having aliens. I also thought that there was a
there's a really really clever sequence that did something we'd
(36:09):
never seen before, which was this use of the anti
gravity with the acid blood when Spanny. That's really cool. Again.
I just think I'm like, David Johnson, give him an award, please,
because he just grounds this. It's like when you know
when they cost Adam Driver and Force Awakens, and the
whole time you're watching the movie, you're like, You're so
(36:31):
lucky that Adam Driver said he would play Kylo Ren
like you. This movie is great, and I obviously I
love the Force Awakens. I would die for my children Cannon,
it's definitely a part of it. But like when Adam
Driver is in that movie, You're like, this man is
bringing like Shakespearean Thespian levels of tragedy to this these
scenes with like Harrison Ford, and I feel like David
Johnson is that grounding kind of elevating force in this movie.
(36:56):
So and it's absolutely wild to see him from He
was in this absolutely delightful Hulu uh rom com called
Rye Rye Lane that was set in London in South
London and he's so charming and delightful in that. Please
go watch it. It's so good. But it was crazy
to then see him kind of playing this more complicated
(37:17):
like spooky figure when he you know, depending on which
andy we got, and I just thought it was like
really cool.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
He's also great in the first two seasons of Industry.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yes, oh my gosh, Industry season three, just saying if
you are looking for because this feels like there's it's
gonna be the new succession, right.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
This is as in as quick aside about Industry season
three on HBO and Max. It has definitely leveled up.
If you're watching season one and season two, you're trying
to get through it and you're wondering, is this is it? Really?
I don't know if this is for me. I promise
season three is thus far.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Coalesces is hitting three hard.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Anyway, back to the movie, I want to one final thing,
which is your thoughts on the engineer like alien xenomorph
human hybrid born from K's womb, bonded, bonded with her
unborn child, and let's talk about this alien. What did
(38:22):
you think of it? Also? Should this alien have tried
out for the NBA.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Definitely he should he should have been in the club
or shooting hoops. He's seven foot tall. You know what,
I'll be real with you. I thought it was very
clever design. I definitely liked that they made it look
like an engineer now knowing that this is now, knowing
(38:48):
that Fede has like confirmed that it is like it
was Buhn's baby. I also think this was probably Fede
doing some like, oh, incest baby with a xenomorph. I'm
not gonna lie. I'm just the lover of the original
xenomorph designs, and the Queen's aenomorph and like the alien
queen and basically anything Geiger does. So that that didn't
(39:11):
hit for me in like a spooky, like scary way.
I didn't think like, oh, I'm scared of this, but
I will say I did think it was like a cool,
unexpected twist. And I do think that every alien movie
needs to introduce some new version, and so I think
this was a unique way to bring together Prometheus and
the alien movies and kind of create something that was
(39:34):
really unique and never before seeing Carmen super producer Princess Carmen,
who's also an alien Stannus, you want to. Carmen was
terrified by the offspring, so it did. I think it
worked differently for other people.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
It was gonna look. I really liked it and was
completely creeped out by it. Yeah. Uh, it was really disgusting.
And they grow so fast. I mean the thing grew
to like seven foot.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, that was like it was twenty minutes. It was
like Twilight speed birth, like there giving birth and then
the baby and then the babies in the NBA. You know,
it's like so quickly, they grow up so fast. Okay,
So one thing I want to ask you quickly before
we end on this is like I feel like, because
the movie's made a lot of money and because it
(40:20):
was relatively affordable to make in the grand scheme of
like a dead poor Wolverine, I think this could lead
to more movies. But the question is is it gonna be.
I feel like they could do like a spin off
of this where they kind of follow Rain and Andy
because she said, you know, I believe she'll fix Andy.
They're both together, and they could kind of explore more
(40:43):
about like the mysterious life giving goo that we see
in Alien, that we see in Prometheus, and then we
now see in Alien Romulus, or they could just keep
making like weird anthology movies that fit more around different timelines.
I think I would the latter as much as I
want to see Andy, But like, what do you think, Like,
(41:04):
what do you think the next Alien movie is going
to be?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
There is, of course Noah Hawley's Alien Earth. Yes, which
is it's going.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
To be a true prequel, I guess saying.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
In some kind of place in its production life cycle.
We don't know where. I personally, I think that the
tried and true. Here's the thing about Alien Romulus. It
is directly lifted from the original Alien formula, which is
Haunted House in Space.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Trapped room, trapped Room.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
And I think that that that has a lot of
life and vitality in it, different places, different cast You
can do a lot of things with that, and you
can make pretty relatively cheap movies that people want to
see just based on that formula. Me personally, I would
I'm hoping to see. One of the things I liked
about Prometheus is that it evolved the story, and I
(42:01):
think that's what I want is I want those scares.
I want that monster movie, I want that Haunted House
in Space. But I'm hoping to see more of the world,
have it more fleshed out, maybe have there be more
challenges as we get more of these movies. But I
think one of the things that I'm really excited about
(42:21):
is that it's for sure we're gonna get that, We're
gonna get more opportunities for more alien movies. I agree
with how Gangbusters this film is going right now all
around the world.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
I definitely didn't expect. I mean, this came out what
like three weeks after Deadpool and Wouverine and managed to
take it off, which I don't know if anyone saw coming.
Also as well, FEDDEI did have a cool idea and
we'll leave you with this, which is he did an
interview I believe it was with Deadline where he said,
I want to do an alien versus preditor movie that's
half directed by me and half directed by Dan Trachtenberg
(42:55):
who made Prey. Now I want to see that. I mean,
I'm like Disney green Light that movie.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
It's like from Dusk Till Dawn but in Spain.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Oh, now we're talking.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
We like this movie. Hope you go hope you liked
it too. Up next, you want more Alien Romulus. We've
got more. We've got an interview with Alien Romulus star
Alien Wu, who plays Navarro.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Check that out.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
We're so excited to welcome Alien Wu, who plays Novarro
in Alien Romulus. Alien, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
Of course, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
I was reading about the process of you getting the role,
and it's so fun. I was wondering if you might
share that with us.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
I think it was February twenty twenty one. I was
back home in Vancouver having finished undergrad at NYU, and
my husband and I were actually working together when I
got the self tape. He was producing and I was
directing a bunch of high school students in a production
of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which is I was kind of
(44:17):
a fun odd job that he had gotten me. We
weren't married yet, and that was like one of his
schemes to get me to come back home from New York.
He was like, I got you a job. He can't
turn down a job, and I was like, yeah, I
really can't. And he made it first time working on
anything theater Shakespeare related. Yeah, it was. We were having
a blast, and you know, we were a month away
(44:39):
and this self tape request comes in from my manager Helen,
and she's like, bracket, this is alien because they don't
usually tell you what it is in the title when
it's such a big franchise. Yeah. We went over to
my husband's producing partners apartment to film it after like
a twelve hour rehearsal day because he had this really
(45:02):
cool setup with like the blue screen backdrop and oh wow. Yeah,
and I was like, yeah, let's let's use this because
mainly one of the scenes or a couple of the
scenes had the entire ensemble, and we thought it would
be a good idea to kind of like have two
people read with me so I wouldn't get confused and
(45:25):
help me with my eyelines. But yeah, I did watch
the first film before doing the tape because I had
never watched any of them before.
Speaker 5 (45:38):
Did I read your introduction was through your brother's action figure.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
Yes, this could tract. Yeah. So, while we moved to
Vancouver when we were still in elementary school, and my
mom as an incentive to get us to really learn English,
if we did well at our English class, like, she
(46:04):
signed us up for outside of school English classes to
help us, you know, get better faster. If we did
well at those. Every week, she'd bring my brother and
I to like this Action figure store every Friday and
we would get to pick out a toy. But it's
really just like me following my older brother around and
watching what he would pick out. And he'd always give
(46:27):
me like a big introduction or like description of who
this is, what universe they're from, what powers they have.
But one day, like a xenomorph showed up. I didn't
know what it was, and I was like, this is weird,
and he's like, don't worry about it. I'll tell you
about next week's but this one's just for me.
Speaker 5 (46:47):
Has he seen you in the movie yet?
Speaker 4 (46:50):
No? He hasn't.
Speaker 6 (46:51):
Oh yeah, David, my older brother David, He like we
have a funny relationship.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
Like he's the only person I feel like in my
life who's like never impressed with what I do. It's
just like you will always be like my stupid, annoying
little sister who would not leave me alone ever growing up,
who I always have to clean up after because like
I threw a lot of parties during high school and
(47:26):
he would My parents would assign him as like babysitter
and he would have to like show up at these
parties and like help clean up and like like clean
puke off the floor, so like and be like stop
smoking in the backyard and like drive my drunk friends home.
(47:49):
And he wouldn't get to like drink and have fun
at these parties. So that's that's kind of our relationship,
which which I think honestly is very good for me,
Like it keeps me very grounded, humble. Yeah, so I
think he'll see it at some point, but I think
when it all dies down and like he gets to
like see it and by himself, you know, in our hometown.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
So sometimes when you send in a self tape, you
know you're waiting. You don't know how, you know, you
don't know what the what the reaction is. How quick
did the process happen? After sending in the tape, Oh,
it was.
Speaker 4 (48:28):
The next day they were like, they want to do
a zoom callback. I was like, great, I'd never gotten
a zoom callback from doing a self tape before. I
had only been with my agent, my manager, Helen, for
a year up to that point, and she was great.
She sent me things like back to back to back
and I would tape for them, and I feel like
(48:49):
it really built like that audition muscle in me. But
that was truthfully the first a callback that I got.
And then yeah, I did the callback, met Mary Renew
and Sydney. They were great to give me a couple
of notes. I did it like twice, and then two
days after I had that call back, they sent me
(49:11):
the full script, had me read it, and then I
was on a call with Fede who was in Budapestuary
and then he kind of gave me the role during
the call like that call, but I didn't really know
that that was what was going on. It was like,
(49:33):
so you you down to do this, and I was like, yeah,
this is are you tricking me? Because you know, my
my manager and my husband as well, who works mainly
as a film producer, they warned me. They're like, hey,
you have to wait for the official contract from studio. Like,
(49:58):
don't get your hopes up. There's a lot lot of
horror stories with actors getting in the process of getting
roles that like last minute they pull out and it's
like getting the rug pulled out from under them. It's
the worst feelings. So like, just really stay grounded, plant
your feet and we wait no matter what happens on
the zoom call we wait until your name is on
(50:20):
a piece of paper underneath the line where you can
sign your name. I was like, okay, got it. So
when he said that, I was like, they warned me
about this.
Speaker 5 (50:32):
It's funny. We'll talk to us about the first time
you walk on set.
Speaker 4 (50:36):
Oh man, I was so never been to Budapest before.
A beautiful, beautiful country. And then the studio is huge.
It's where they also filmed like Doom Part one and
part two, so it's like giant, giant buildings that look
like warehouses. And Fete is giving me, Archie and Spike
(51:03):
a tour. So we just went in and every studio
had like different sets were built in them, and I
was just like can I film this? I'm very like
or is that not allowed? But yeah, he was just
so excited to was so excited to show us everything.
It truly was like his his baby.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
You know, I've read that, And this is kind of
unique for feature films that it was filmed in order.
Speaker 4 (51:30):
Yes, it was a film all chronologically.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
That's wild. So your first scene is the first thing
that you did after arriving on set?
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Wow? So what was that like?
Speaker 4 (51:45):
It was such. I mean, this is my first feature film.
I had no idea what I was. I was like,
is this normal? Do we always shoot in chronological order?
And everybody was like, no, this never happens. I was like, oh, okay,
well this is a treat. I think it really kicked
in afterwards. Oh, I just got a miss call from
(52:10):
wonder what's going on. I'll call him back if.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
You want to close it of a text? Wee can
you don't want to?
Speaker 4 (52:19):
No? No, it's okay, I like to. Yeah, it didn't
for the chronological part. Oh, he's really calling again.
Speaker 1 (52:28):
Okay, yeah, we'll meet the Yeah, feel free to.
Speaker 4 (52:33):
Meet in Sorry guys.
Speaker 5 (52:37):
Oh my god, that was the sweetest thing.
Speaker 4 (52:39):
He's a sweet, sweet man. So just called me. I
missed the first one, but I picked up the second one.
He was like, this, this movie is making so much money.
I'm not very good with numbers, he said the number,
but it's making a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
In the China market, it really is.
Speaker 4 (52:56):
And yeah, and he said there's not like a massive
cult following in China, so it really is just credits
to us and specifically me. That was very sweet because
this is the thing even in the audition request. They
were like, if you speak another language, please do one
(53:17):
of the tapes in the other language that you speak.
So I did that. Yeah, I've never seen that before.
I've never experienced that with a tape before. And after
we got on set, he was like, hey, your tapes,
those Mandarin takes that you did were so cool. Do
you mind if we bring some of that while filming
(53:37):
and like brainstorm some moments where Navarro would speak in
her mother tongue. So there's a couple moments in the
film where I got to speak Mandarin and I'm getting
some like traction like just on Instagram and stuff like
that of people being like, wow, this is this is
(53:58):
so special. First Asia an actress in this franchise and
she's speaking Mandarin. This is so cool.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
That is really cool. How did you choose the moments?
Speaker 4 (54:11):
Like what were the I went for the private moments.
I went for the more private moments that Navarro was having.
And really it was like very collaborative with Fei. He
would be like half the time he'd be like, hey,
I think this is a and I was like, yes,
I agree. I was just going to go to you
and say that maybe it's here. Yeah, And he'd be
(54:34):
like saying maybe something like this, and I'll be like, okay, okay,
I got you. And then I would like try to
come up with something and like call my mom and
call my husband right before we roll and be like,
does this make sense? Because my Mandarin is not perfect?
Like it's been a long time since I've been in
an environment where it's all Mandarin speaking, so I feel
like I kind of speak it brokenly.
Speaker 5 (54:55):
That he seems like such a actor's director as watch
a bunch of like videos with him and talking about
his process and everything. And one thing that really stuck
out to me that that was interesting, is it sometimes
he'll barbecue for the cast and crew, he said, especially
if there's like a really difficult day or week ahead,
like to sort of prep them. I was wondering if
(55:16):
he barbecued for you guys, and if so, can you
raise his food so good?
Speaker 4 (55:21):
Such good barbecue? He he brings the meat from Uruguay.
I'm not kidding, he like, he puts, yes, I don't
know how you did that. He's like, guys, this is
meat from Uruguay arrived this morning. And he barbecues for
the entire cast and crew, like hundreds and hundreds of
(55:43):
thousands of people. And he says this is a tradition
of his and he does this every film that he's directing.
Before we start shooting. Wow, and like his his wife
is like chopping up the bread and making the chimmy
churry and the salad, and his uncle is there and
his kids are running around like it's the best, it's
(56:05):
the best vibes.
Speaker 1 (56:07):
That is so cool, you know, it struck me thinking
about this movie, which is notable for use of extensive
use of really practical like in camera effects, and it's
so interesting that your self tape like had a blue screen,
Like Yeah, I talk to us about like the contrast
(56:30):
between you know, going from this self tape and this
really quick process to then ending up on set where
you know, you've got a chest burster thing like on
you three chess burster. Yeah, there's like what there's water
and grease and stuff dripping off everything. I talked to
Loube apparently, yeah, Loube, apparently you're stuck in a hole
(56:52):
for a period of time, So what is that? What's that?
Speaker 5 (56:55):
Like?
Speaker 7 (56:56):
That was really crazy. I really just tried to take
it one day out of time. You're honest, with y'all,
and I think folmin in chronological order again really helped
with that because like you could track with the script
as we went on really.
Speaker 4 (57:13):
Easily, and it came very naturally. The journey of her downfall,
which is also very short, yeah, because it just it
happens and then all shit goes down once it once
she's attacked, everything happens super fast paced. So yeah, that
was very exhilarating. It's just like, Okay, face hugger's check,
(57:35):
We've done a week of that, next week the chess
burser check, and then okay, let's do the appendage coming
out of my mouth with second You know, we kept
looking forward to that moment and it never came on tip.
Right before I was stepping off set, they were like, yeah,
that's right, we haven't shot.
Speaker 8 (57:55):
That one scene one moment yet. Let's let's do that
with second unit. And I was like, damn, I wish
I got to do it with FEddi. But once we
started filming that, I was like, Okay, it makes a
lot of sense that we're doing this on second unit
because it's just like a very technical shot and it's
like one set up and yeah, we spent like I
(58:17):
think six seven hours doing that one one take, over
and over and over.
Speaker 5 (58:22):
This is where you're pulling the face hugger off you.
Speaker 4 (58:25):
Yes, everybody thinks it's CGI, but it's not.
Speaker 5 (58:28):
Wow holy yow.
Speaker 4 (58:31):
And no, no, it doesn't actually go all the way
down to my stomach. I didn't have to swallow a
thing every take.
Speaker 1 (58:41):
As a producer, director yourself, were you able to glean
anything from being on set that you're like, oh, this
is this will help me as I evolve in my career.
Speaker 4 (58:54):
Two things Fedi's kindness. Kindness as the director goes such
a long way, especially when the task at hand is
very large and challenging. Yeah, his patience and his kindness.
And then that leads to my second thing. When you
have that, it's easier to get everyone to have the
(59:15):
mentality of like, let's get this shot. We either have
this or we don't. We have to do this for
the audience and really honor what their experience, what experience
we want them to have and aim for the fucking stars.
If you aim for it, then there's that's the only
(59:36):
possible way that you might have a chance of reaching
that well.
Speaker 1 (59:39):
Alien the movie is a huge hit, You're a big
part of that. Congratulations on the success of the film
and your success, and thank you so much for joining
us again.
Speaker 4 (59:49):
Thank you guys so much. This is lovely much.
Speaker 1 (59:52):
Thanks to Alien Wu for joining us. Coming up on
X ray Vision, we're gonna be diving into Godzilla, Monster Island,
Summer Cambriton by somebody who is on this it's recording session,
and then we're gonna be recapping Rings of Power season one.
Oh baby, stay tuned for that. And that's it for
this episode. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kenseepsion and Rosie
Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive
producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer
is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and
Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman
and Heidi A discolled moderata
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
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