Alien: Romulus brings dead actor back into franchise using ‘generative AI’ – but fans rage at ‘disrespectful’ decision

ALIEN fans have criticized the franchise’s newest entry, Romulus, for using generative AI to bring a dead actor back to the franchise.

Alien: Romulus, starring Cailee Spaeny, 26, and David Jonsson, 31, was released theatrically on August 16.

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The Fede Alverez-directed Alien sequel, which chronologically sits between the first Ridley Scott -directed picture and James Cameron ‘s 1986 follow-up Aliens, used the likeness of deceased actor Ian Holm in the sci-fi horror film.

Ian, who died in June 2020, played the android Ash – the secondary villain to the film’s Xenomorph – in Alien (1979).

The actor’s likeness was used to portray a similar synthetic human, Rook, who the movie’s protagonists discover aboard an abandoned spaceship.

On Monday, the film and pop culture-dedicated X, formally Twitter account, Discussing Film, reposted a Los Angeles Times story about Holms appearing in the 2024 Alien entry.

The tweet read, “The deceased actor who appears in ‘ALIEN: ROMULUS’ was brought back by using an animatronic with some CGI enhancements.

“Daniel Betts did the voice with generative AI and computer modeling used to make it sound more like the late actor.”

In the comment thread, one person asked, “Isn’t this a little disrespectful.”

“I hope that their family got the royalties,” commented another.

“That’s disgusting,” remarked a third.”

A fourth commenter stated Ian’s inclusion was the “worst part of the movie.”

“Love everyone kicking off saying it’s disrespectful, clearly haven’t read the article,” argued another.

RESPECTFUL RESURRECTION

“We were not trying to do what can’t be done, which is to reproduce that person’s talent as an actor, because this is another character,” Alvarez, who also directed Evil Dead (2013) and Don’t Breath (2016), explained in the LA Times article .

He continued, “The only thing they have in common is the likeness.”

The character, Rook, wasn’t created entirely with CGI but was a mix of computer-generated imagery and an on-set lifelike robot.

We were not trying to do what can’t be done, which is to reproduce that person’s talent as an actor, because this is another character. The only thing they have in common is the likeness.”

Fede Alvarez The Los Angeles Times

“We knew we were going to create an animatronic and that later we were going to do CGI enhancements in the mouth and in the eyes depending on the shots,” Alvarez, 46, revealed.

He continued, “Then the question arose, “What face does it have? Who is it?'”

Alvarez stated that his team considered the entire range of androids used in the Alien films.

Lance Henriksen appeared as Bishop in Aliens and in David Fincher’s Aliens 3 (1992) and Michael Fassbender starred as David 8 in Scott’s Prometheus (2012) and Walter One in Alien: Covenant (2017).

“The only one who hadn’t reappeared and who we found fascinating was Ian Holm,” Alvarez told The Times.

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Alvarez revealed that he reached out to Holm’s widow, Sophie de Stempel, to explain the idea and ask what she thought about the late actor’s inclusion.

He also discussed it with Scott, who produced the film and had remained acquainted with Holm after filming Alien.

Both parties were enthusiastic about the idea.

“In the last 10 years after The Hobbit, Ian Holm felt like Hollywood had turned its back on him and his widow felt he would have loved to be a part of this,” said Alvarez.

“He loved this character in particular.”

Scott, 86, saw Holm as Rook as a way for Alvarez to “dip into some of the artifacts from the very first film.”

“Suddenly appearing as a company on-board robot – that’s bit of an old-fashioned word there – was a great idea,” Scott, 86, told the outlet.

He continued, “That’s how ideas work. Grand ideas evolve. The next step is ‘Blade Runner,’ where you get Roy Batty as an evolved replicant, a human who’s not human, but actually in essence, in old terminology, a robot.”

BRINGING ROOK TO LIFE

Rook was designed as an animatronic in the image of Holm, with facial movements that were controlled off-camera human maneuvering.

“It was 80 to 90% done by the puppeteers depending on the shot,” Alvarez said.

In the last 10 years after The Hobbit, Ian Holm felt like Hollywood had turned its back on him and his widow felt he would have loved to be a part of this,”

Fede Alvarez The Los Angeles Times

He also described the CGI enhancements in postproduction as eye work, “so that the animatronic had a little more life” and in the mouth to make the lip sync better.

British actor Daniel Betts was on set in Budapest to record the facial capture with the cast and during filming, the lines were read in real-time using the animatronic.

Betts’ voice was later adjusted to sound more like Holm’s using generative AI and computer modeling.

“We’re not bringing someone back to life and saying, ‘Ian would have done it that way,'” Alvarez asserted before adding, “He would have obviously done it differently.

“We had an actor who was on the set, who worked on the dialogue, who worked with the actors. It’s not like we skipped hiring an actor.”

Alvarez maintained that Rook is a character with a distinct personality from Ash and that his motivation for using Holm’s likeness and voice was a genuine desire to honor the actor’s place in the franchise’s history.

“We did it all with a lot of respect and always with the authorization of his family, his children, and his widow, who said, ‘We would love to see his likeness again,'” Alvarez concluded.

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