By If you saw 20th Century Studios’ “Alien: Romulus” at home rather than in the cinema, it turns out you missed out on something – dodgy CGI.
Speaking with Empire Magazine, the film’s director Fede Alvarez has confirmed that the CG recreation of the late actor Ian Holm as the android Rook was visually tweaked after the movie’s cinema release.
In the film, Rook is the disembodied head of the same model android that Holm’s Ash character was in the original 1979 “Alien” film. Holm passed away in 2020 so the filmmakers, with permission from his estate, used his appearance for this other android character.
The film was subject to various criticisms, but one of the biggest was over the Rook character – both for its inclusion and for the questionable CGI used. With the home entertainment release of the film, Alvarez says the studio went back in and fixed it:
“We just ran out of time in post-production to get it right. I wasn’t 100 percent happy with some of the shots, where you could feel a bit more the CG intervention. So, for people that react negatively, I don’t blame them.
We made it better for the [home video] release right now. I convinced the studio we need to spend the money and make sure we give the companies that were involved in making it the proper time to finish it and do it right. It’s so much better.
[Animatronic puppeteer] Shane Mahan actually did this animatronic of Ian Holm based on a head cast from Lord Of The Rings, and that was the only one in existence. What we did [for the home entertainment version] was revert a lot more to the puppet. It’s way better.”
Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu co-starred in the film which is out on disc and all digital platforms, and is currently streaming on Hulu.
The post “Alien: Romulus” Altered CG Rook Post-Release appeared first on Dark Horizons.
