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Director Fede Alvarez, of Don’t Breathe and Evil Dead fame, has just brought the Alien franchise back to life with the release of Alien: Romulus, which is in theaters now. It’s very early days, but the film has been met with largely positive reviews and looks to be doing very well for itself on opening weekend at the box office. So, what’s next for Mr. Alvarez? How about a reboot of Alien vs. Predator? It’s by no means anything that’s actually being discussed (so far as we know). That said, the filmmaker has a pretty cool pitch for it.
Speaking with Deadline on the red carpet recently, Alvarez was asked hypothetically about making a new Alien vs. Predator movie now that Romulus is out in the world. “Maybe something that I have to co-direct with my buddy Dan,” Alvarez said with a smile, referring to Prey director Dan Trachtenberg. So there we have it. Alvarez is proposing teaming up with the man who revived the Predator franchise to once again have the two legendary creatures meet on the big screen. If I may? Yes. Absolutely fuck yes.
For the moment, Trachtenberg appears to be busy with another Predator film titled Badlands. More importantly, Disney and 20th Century Studios were quite happy with Trachtenberg’s work on Prey. Similarly, it seems the brass is happy with Alvarez, given the early response to Romulus. Speaking a bit further, the director elaborated on his pitch, comparing it conceptually to what Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have done in the past.
“Maybe we should do like Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez did with From Dusk Till Dawn. We’ll do that. I direct one half, he directs the other half. There you go. That’s the pitch.”
Tarantino wrote From Dusk Till Dawn, with Rodriguez directing. Perhaps closer to what Alvarez is suggesting would be 2007’s Grindouse, a double feature consisting of Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and Tarantino’s Death Proof. Whatever the case, even if Alvarez was just throwing this out there on the spot as a friendly answer to a reporter on the red carpet, it’s hard not to see that he could be onto something here.
2004’s Alien vs. Predator, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, was a decent hit in its day that spawned an almost universally reviled sequel, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem. No matter where one lands on the AvP films that exist, one would be hard-pressed to say they rise to the level of the original Alien or Predator. At the same time, it always felt like the concept had a lot of juice in the tank, as evidenced by the various comics and video games over the years. That potential just hasn’t been tapped cinematically just yet.
Given the successful revival of both of these individual franchises lately, one could argue there is no better time to give a new AvP film a shot. Having Trachtenberg and Alvarez collaborate on such a thing would be an immediately compelling hook. “From the directors of Prey and Alien: Romulus.” It sells itself. Heck, Disney is apparently sitting on a totally finished Alien vs. Predator anime series they don’t plan to release. They might as well do something with the property, and this seems like a damn good idea. Your move, Disney.
Alien: Romulus is in theaters now. For more, take a dive into the FANGORIA vault and check out some Predator goods from the past.
