Fede Alvarez Says Ridley Scott Called His New ‘Alien’ Movie “F***ing Great”

Fede Alvarez, who is directing the new sequel to the Alien franchise, admitted that he was “terrified” to hear filmmaker Ridley Scott‘s feedback on the upcoming movie.

During a recent discussion with Guillermo del Toro at the DGA Latino Summit 2023, the Don’t Breathe director revealed that his “director’s cut” of the film was finished, which meant he “had to go through the incredibly tense process of obviously sending it to Ridley,” who directed the original 1979 Alien and is a producer on the sequel.

“I wanted him to see it before anybody,” Alvarez explained. “And everyone gave me the heads-up [that] Ridley is really tough. He’s really tough, particularly if you have something to do with his movies.”

He continued, “He was really tough on Blade Runner [2049], which I thought was a masterpiece, and he had issues with it because it’s really hard for him because it’s his work. … I asked him about the new Top Gun and he’s like, ‘Meh.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he was like, ‘My brother’s was original and this is like, eh.’ He really respected it, but you could see how tough he was. So I was like, ‘There’s no way I win this one.’”

But the Evil Dead director knew he had to face his fears, no matter how afraid he was to meet with Scott in person to hear his feedback.

“Even if he didn’t ask for it, I was gonna go there and sit at a table and look at him and get it,” Alvarez said. “Even if he was gonna say, ‘You destroyed my legacy,’ I wanted to be in front of him and see him in the eye. I didn’t want to get an email where it says, ‘Ridley says….'”

But Scott’s reaction definitely took Alvarez by surprise. “He walks into the room and he did say, ‘Fede, what can I say? It’s fucking great,’” the filmmaker recalled. “For me, it was like … my family knows it was one of the best moments of my life to have a master like him, [who] I admired so much, to even watch a movie I made, but particularly something like this … and talk to me [for] an hour about what he liked about it. … One of the best compliments he said was, ‘The dialogue is great. Are you the writer?’ Yes!”

Though many details surrounding the film are being kept under wraps, the ninth installment of the franchise is set to focus on a group of young people on a distant colony as they fight for their lives with the titular alien, a creature known as a Xenomorph.

The 20th Century Studios film stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu.

The Alien sequel is slated to release on Aug. 16, 2024.

The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Scott’s rep, who declined to comment.