Overview
One of 2024's cinema trends has a very specific number in mind: 45. It was four-and-a-half decades ago that the Mad Max franchise first rolled onto the big screen, with creator/writer/director George Miller bringing it back this year for its fifth instalment via Furiosa: A Mad Max Story. It was also 45 years ago that no one could hear you scream in space, as Ridley Scott's OG Alien advised — and it too has a new movie reaching silver screens in 2024.
The latter: Alien: Romulus. While watching both the initial teaser and just-dropped full trailer for the latest entry in the franchise, can anyone hear your shouts? The answer to that question depends on where you are and who you're with, of course — we're presuming that you're not in space — but the sneak peeks themselves firmly aim to unsettle. Across the two glimpses, there's an eerie derelict space station, dark hallways aplenty, screaming and a heap of blood. There's also plenty of facehuggers, chestbursters and xenomorphs. Behind the lens, albeit producing rather than directing, Scott (Napoleon) remains involved.
The seventh Alien film, and the ninth including the Alien vs Predator movies, Alien: Romulus arrives in August seven years since Alien: Covenant gave the seriesf its last entry. While Scott originated the space-thriller saga back in 1979, then returned to it with 2012's Prometheus and 2017's Alien: Covenant, now Evil Dead, Don't Breathe and The Girl in the Spider's Web filmmaker Fede Álvarez is on helming duties — clearly taking his cues from Scott's work, though, right down to specific mirrored shots.
The setup: when space colonisers go a-scavenging through an abandoned space station, they get more than they bargained for. Given Álvarez's background in horror, it comes as no surprise that he's tapping into the genre for his Alien effort, just as Scott did with his. Álvarez also wrote the screenplay, reteaming with Rodo Sayagues, who he worked with on Evil Dead and Don't Breathe — and who directed Don't Breathe 2.
Priscilla and Civil War's Cailee Spaeny leads the group of folks doing battle with vicious extra-terrestrials, starring alongside David Jonsson (Rye Lane), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (Madame Web), Spike Fearn (Aftersun) and feature first-timer Aileen Wu.
Separate to Alien: Romulus, the Alien franchise is also expanding to TV, with a new series from Fargo's Noah Hawley in the works, as set three decades before the events of the first film. Featuring Sydney Chandler (Don't Worry Darling), Alex Lawther (Andor), Essie Davis (One Day) and Timothy Olyphant (Justified: City Primeval), it isn't expected until 2025.
With all things Alien set to stalk across both the big and small screens over the next couple of years, staying away from this saga isn't in anyone's futures.
Check out the full trailer for Alien: Romulus below:
Alien: Romulus releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, August 15, 2024.
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