'Alien, Romulus', Film Review, Jawad Mir & James

0:00JamesI put this as the third best Alien film ever, basically, behind... I had Aliens as my number one and Alien as my number two

0:09Jawad MirYou know, the tension that was in Jaws and the first Jurassic Park, especially Jurassic Park, I just felt that in this film.

0:16JamesThe production designer really, and the art… art department team really captured that feel o… of an Alien movie.

0:24Jawad MirWhat he did was, and I noticed it like maybe later part of the film was, there would be these sound effects and this conversation and all this stuff, and the music will slowly start ramping up without you even realizing that it's happening until it builds up to an intense level and you're like, "Oh."

0:37JamesBut I think there's some... He t… he takes the franchise in an interesting direction, particularly what, with what happens in the last third. Yeah, no, I was really impressed. So you saw Alien: Romulus yesterday?

0:57Jawad MirYes. Yes. It was, a press screening at 10:00 AM, and normally when I go to a press screening, there's probably nine people in a massive movie theater. But with this one, there was at least 70 to 80, on IMAX, and it was... Well, before I say something else, w… anything, what did you think of the film?

1:21JamesPretty good. I think it's probably... I mean, in a strange summer where lots of films have kind of been moved around because of the actors' strike last year, so it's not been a, it's not been a stellar summer for blockbusters really. I mean, I enjoyed Furiosa, for example. But, yeah, I've... This feels like the best, the best summer blockbuster there's been. I thought... So someone asked me to do an article kind of ranking the Alien movies, and that includes Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, the prequels, and then the Alien versus Predator spin-offs. And, well, so when is this coming out, by the way? 'Cause the embargo drops at 8:00 tonight, doesn't it? So.

2:08Jawad MirYeah, I'm literally posting it exactly at 3:00 PM Eastern.

2:12James3:00 PM your time. Yeah, got it.

2:13Jawad MirSo, yeah. Yeah.

2:14JamesYeah, I put this as the third-best Alien film ever, basically, behind... I had Aliens as my number one and Alien as my number two, although it's very difficult to separate those two for different reasons. But I thought he did a fantastic job, Fede Alvarez. I'd seen about 20 minutes or so in advance. He'd come to London and shown some footage, so I was quite hyped to see it. You know, I'm a big fan of the, at least those early Alien movies. I mean, they were seminal. And I remember coming out of that footage thinking, "Well, this looks pretty good." You know, it… it's got the, it's got the real creepy feel of those early Alien films, the kind of terrifying nature of the face hu… huggers skittering around and things like that. I mean, they held back on a lot of stuff in that footage, obviously. But yeah, no, I was, I was really impressed. I mean, it... I just wrote in a review, it reminds me a little bit of the Star Wars show, The Mandalorian, and maybe other Star Wars shows as well, but particularly that one which kind of immerse you back into that Star Wars universe, something that feels very familiar.

3:24JamesAnd I felt here, he really dips you back into that Alien universe. You know, you, we start really on that mining colony, where the characters, we first meet Rain and Andy. A… and just the kind of look of that colony just reminded me of what it's like to be back in an Alien film, even though most of the Alien films are really set on spacecrafts and things. I mean, occasionally they sort of dock into a planet. But it, you know, there's a slight weariness to the look of everything. You know, everything's just a bit worn and tired and, you know, it's not the kind of gleaming sci-fi, you know, that you might get in, say, 2001 or something like that. And I thought the production designer really, and the art department team really captured that feel o… of an Alien movie. And then it's, you know, I don't think we should really go into spoilers, 'cause there's some really good spoilers in this, or good surprises I should say.

4:24JamesBut I think there's some... He t… he takes the franchise in an interesting direction, particularly what, with what happens in the last third. Yeah, no, I was really impressed. But what about you?

4:37Jawad MirLikewise, I was very impressed. And, I had seen... I haven't seen Covenant and Prometheus in a while, even though they came out just, like, the last 10 years. So I mean, I remember some visuals of it and some story arc, but not that much because they were not that great films in my view. I've never seen Alien Resurrection. I don't even know that existed until, like, couple of weeks ago.

5:00JamesRight.

5:01Jawad MirBut, I've, I've... The very first Alien movie I ever saw was Aliens in 1991 on television, and then I saw Alien. And then I saw Alien 3 last week after a long time, which I was pleasantly surprised about. Aside from some terrible CGI, it was pretty good film. Having said all that, Alien: Romulus really blew me away, in terms of its storytelling, in terms of its plot twists, everything. You know, there's... The visual effects are done kinda like the old Stan Winston way. You know, that's all I will say. And then just the sheer production design even. I'm trying to... You know, aside from the s… the intense moments, you know, throughout the film, there's a couple of shots which are very beautiful in terms of what the universe looks like. I don't wanna say it, but you probably will get a sense and, it's towards, it… towards the last act, that's all I will say.

6:04Jawad MirAnd there's some shots that reminded me of 2001: Space Odyssey, like you can literally blow it up and put it in your room if you wanted to, like that's how beautiful some of the shots were. And yeah, Fede did, you know, Fede did an amazing job. It… the tension was just incredible. And I thought, you know how sometimes when you're watching a jump scare movie, a thriller movie, you know, "Okay, now this is gonna happen." Anytime I anticipated something to happen because it wasn't happening, I was completely wrong. And that's what was so great about it. And I remember watching the trailer when it first came out. The moment I got sold to that film was when it said, "From the director of Don't Breathe." 'Cause the amount of tension in Don't Breathe there, you know, in the first cou… half of the film is amazing, and I knew I was going in for something that was gonna blow my socks away, and it certainly did. It's to… definitely in the top three for me. Aliens is always number one for me too. And I think Alien because it's the first one and Ridley Scott, then this one, and then David Fincher one.

7:08Jawad MirOne thing I'll talk to you about the colony scene in the beginning, it reminded me a lot of Blade Runner. The original one. You know, that feel, that environment that they created then. And some of the shots, I... It was just the old way of filmmaking, like, you know, camera just following the characters and showing the environments. It didn't cut away to tight shots just to cheat. It was, it was really well done. Music, production design, visual effects, everything was fantastic.

7:37JamesYeah, no, the music as well, it's kind of this... It's funny, I didn't really notice it until certain points, and then it's…

7:43Jawad MirYeah

7:43James... Kind of this kind of throbbing electronic score, I guess, is how you describe it. But it doesn't ever announce itself as one of these big score, big orchestral scores that you get in kind of Hollywood movies a lot of the time. But it's just playing under the surface and kind of keeping the tension going. I mean, you mentioned the tension, and it really is a very tense film. I mean, again, I don't wanna spoil the scenes too much, but I think there's a really clever sequence where, they're trying to cross one part of the ship to get into another part of the ship, and they have to raise the temperature of the room…

8:20Jawad MirYeah

8:21James... So that the f… the facehuggers can't spot them because they react to temperature. So that was a really clever idea. I guess that's something we've not... I think what the script really did very well was something like that, which I guess makes you think about a facehugger in a different way than perhaps you've done in a prev… in a previous Alien film. So he kind of played with the mythology without ever sort of doing something ridiculous. I mean, people will have their opinions about the ending, which we won't go into obviously. But generally speaking, I think he touches on what, not just the alien creatures and their kind of mythology and their biology, if you like, but also the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and their kind of ruthless nature. We kind of know that already, but I think we see more of it here. We just see a little bit more about the company. Even very, I think we could say right at the beginning, Cailee's character, Rain, is trying to get off that colony, that mining colony, and she supposedly has done enough hours to, you know, to be released from this kind of servitude that she's in, and then she discovers that, they've just raised the quota and she can't get out for another five or six years.

9:34JamesAnd that just shows how sort of, as a small example of how ruthless that company is, which again, we've dealt with in the past in the previous films, but I think here we see it in a different way. We've seen that company operate more on a ground level, on a wider level. So I think anyone who's a big fan of the, of the franchise will probably appreciate seeing more of this universe expanded without it being, you know, rid… ridiculous or over the top or anything like that. I think it's very subtle the way he just toys with that mythology. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I really liked it from... Again, you could say The Mandalorian did something similar in the S… in the Star Wars universe. It sort of dumps you back in a universe you're familiar with, but then takes you off in a sort of an adjacent tangent. I mean, I'd say if I had to pick holes in it, that I wasn't that keen on the performance, well, it's not so much the performance, but there's the, maybe it's coming from London, but there's a character, he's g… I think he's called Bjorn, but he's played by Spike Fearns, who is the very London one who swears a great deal.

10:37Jawad MirOh, right.

10:39JamesI could have done without that swearing. I didn't think it really added anything to the film. It wasn't particularly clever. But you could argue that they're young, and obviously they're in a horrifying situation. So I'd probably swear if I was in that situation. But, you know, I c… I could have done without that, but a… aside from that, I thought the performances were really good. I think her name's Aileen Wu, who plays Navarro, who's one of the sort of team that are kind of…

11:07Jawad MirRight

11:07James... You know, trying to heist these cryopods in the early part of the, of the film. I thought she was great. She has a great sequence. Again, won't go into it. Too many good, too many good sequences to spoil. But I think the, probably the best performance has gotta come from David Jonsson, who played Andy, the sort of synthetic, because he's very t…

11:28Jawad MirTotally agree.

11:28JamesYeah, very timid in the first, section. I mean, he's kind of regarded as a brother, let's say, to Rain. I mean, not an actual biological brother, but we learn that her father's rescued this android and sort of given him one directive, which is basically to look after Rain. But then things happen to him and his personality changes, and I think it's just a great performance from him. We just see two very different performances that he gives, and I really like what he did there. I think that's gonna be a real breakout performance. I mean, he's known in the UK for a BBC show called Industry, which is all set in the kind of financial… banking universe, but this is obviously very different. Got, you know, a sci-fi. And you know, you could rank him alongside Lance Henriksen, where he played Bishop in Aliens…

12:18James... And obviously Ian Holm playing Rook in the original Alien.

12:21Jawad MirRight.

12:22JamesYeah, he's just as good as those guys, and those guys are obviously very esteemed actors. So, yeah, no, I was really impressed by him particularly.

12:31Jawad MirYeah. He was, he was the best thing in terms of performance. I mean, everybody else was great, too. And you know, the whole swearing part, I'm glad you mentioned it, because for me it wasn't that particular, you know, scene where he's just swearing for no reason, but I just felt... And I get it, in the intensity and everything, and I also felt that s… in certain scenes there was an homage given to the original films, like with some language, on purpose. And, but one of the things that I really enjoyed with the film that, and I don't know if this is just me being a Spielberg fan, there was a lot... I felt there was a little bit of, you know, the tension that was in Jaws and the first Jurassic Park, especially Jurassic Park, I just felt that in this film, and he really took it to the next level where, you know... Again, the music part. One of the great things about the music was you said it was playing under the surface. The only time you s… what he did was, and I noticed it, like, maybe later part of the film was there would be these sound effects and this conversation and all this stuff, and the music will slowly start ramping up without you even realizing that it's happening until it builds up to an intense level and you're like, "Oh."

13:41Jawad MirAnd that's when you start feeling those emotions of that fear and that, you know, surprise and all that. No, it was, it was really cool. I can't wait to see it again, and I'm glad I saw it in IMAX even though it wasn't shot on IMAX cameras. I don't think it was shot on IMAX cameras. I think they enhanced it, with 4K, and I could be wrong. At least that's what I read. But yeah, hands down and probably one of the best Alien films.

14:04JamesYeah, no. I mean, I mean, d… do you feel like... I don't know. E… e… because they're calling it, like, an interquel, which is a terrible phrase, but basically it's obviously coming in between Alien and Aliens.

14:19Jawad MirYeah.

14:19JamesNow, do you feel like this sh… a bit like, let's say, Rogue One. Now, Rogue One, the Star Wars film, obviously came, before Star Wars basically, and because it's obviously about the building of the Death Star.

14:33Jawad MirRight. Right.

14:34JamesBut effectively you could call it, you know, coming after Star Wars Episode III, and then, if I've got that right. I'm now trying to remember if I've got that right. Yeah, before the original Star Wars, but... And Rogue One is effectively a one-off movie. You can't re… you can't really repeat it because, you know, spoiler alert, but some characters die. I won't say who, but if in case you haven't seen it. But here it feels like we can't really repeat... It shouldn't be repeated, this idea. It's like we shouldn't have an, a sequel to Alien: Romulus, you know, where they have another film before Aliens. It's, like, a brilliant idea, and it feels like a one-off, and they shouldn't do it again. That doesn't mean it won't stop the studios doing some sort of sequel, but I just feel like he's got it so right it doesn't need a follow-up. But do you agree?

15:24Jawad MirI couldn't agree more, and I just think that one of the things that Aliens, after the second Aliens, it suffered with the whole anthol… anthology was Alien 3 wasn't received well with fans, right? And then they decided to make another one I think for after four or five years. That didn't turn out well from what I read. I haven't seen it. Then they waited 20 years, and they did Covenant and Prometheus, which wasn't received that well either from what I understand. Because I, for me, those films were very visually,.. Like, it was just very much like everything was very lit up in terms of lighting, and the visual effects were very, you know, CGI. I do think Alien: Romulus is probably gonna make a lot of money, and when movies make a lot of money, they have a way of, you know, coming out with more films. I…

16:15JamesWell, you could say the same about Deadpool & Wolverine, which, you know, Ryan Reynolds just says he doesn't, had never envisaged another one. Now, that doesn't mean it won't happen, because it's just made over a billion dollars. So of course Disney will want a sequel to that in some capacity, whether it's just Deadpool returning or returning with Wolverine in some capacity. But here it just feel... I hope Fede resists doing a sequel. But that, again, that doesn't mean they couldn't bring another director in who's sort of willing…

16:46Jawad MirYeah

16:46James... To try. But it's funny when you mentioned Alien 3 not being well-received, and it, and it certainly wasn't. You're completely correct. And I haven't watched it for a long time. And obviously that's David Fincher making his first ever feature.

17:01JamesAnd yet i… in the way I remember it and when I was constructing this list yesterday, it still ended up pretty high, I think as at number four behind Romulus, because, yeah, all the others just didn't work by comp... I mean, A… Alien 3 is flawed, but it's still got some extremely dark moments in it. A… you know, the sort of what happens to the, to the Ripley character at the end, for example, I won't say in case…

17:28James... People haven't seen it. But, whereas those other ones, I mean, I... Prometheus and Alien: Covenant just felt like films that were only kind of vaguely connected to the Alien universe really. And then obviously the Alien versus Predator films were... Well, I mean, I can see why they made them, just to sort of get some, you know, generate some fan service I guess. But, you know, neither of those were really worth your time. So yeah, I mean, Alien 3 is still, it's, it's flawed, but it's at least interesting. But, you know, they haven't, until Alien: Romulus, they haven't really produced a decent proper Alien film probably since Cameron's movie in 1986, which is crazy when you think about it. That's, whatever that is, almost... Is that 40 years? Something like that. Almost 40 years.

18:15Jawad MirAlmo… almost 40 years. And you know the thing with the first three Alien films and Romulus that stands out for me… Despite their weaknesses, and flaws and everything, was either they had a good to de… decent to good story, or they had really memorable characters, right? So I only saw A… Alien Romulus one, once yesterday. Now, for me to remember, like, I was literally, before we started t… talking, I was trying to think about h… w… who the characters were, what happened to them, and how did it happen to them, whatever happened to them, right? And I remembered, and I will remember that because the story was strong. The characters were not Oscar-worthy, but they were still pretty good, you know? But I think with Rom… Covenant and Prometheus, I don't remember anything other than some few visuals. That's it.

19:11JamesWell, the only thing I can remember really from those films is Michael Fassbender as the Andr…

19:16Jawad MirThat's it

19:16James... As the Android David in…

19:17Jawad MirYeah

19:17James... In Prometheus, and then he replays that character in Covenant, and also an upgraded Android as well. And he gives a great performance, I think, in both of those films. But yeah, i… you know, if you look at the cast, I mean, Prometheus had, like, Idris Elba, Charlize Theron. I think Guy Pearce is in it. I mean, it's a great cast, and Covenant had some decent performers in it as well. But yeah, it's just, they're just not very memorable characters. I mean, the one thing I was worried about with Romulus was it, a… again, it is effectively people trapped on a ship, you know, which is kind of the go-to narrative for an Alien film because obviously that was the, what happened in the very first one.

19:59Jawad MirYeah.

19:59JamesYou know, relatively unknown cast, all trapped on this ship in the middle of space because they can't, they can't escape. So it sort of has to happen. Of course, they've always thought about putting the alien characters on Earth or something like that, which would be a disastrous idea. So i… in a way, you have to have that containment, but I think there was enough in Romulus that replaying that containment idea didn't really matter because first of all, it's a brand-new cast, brand-new characters. So you're seeing quite a, quite a young, bunch of kids really thrown into this horrifying situation they have absolutely no idea about. And then as I sort of alluded to earlier, there's lots and lots that touches back to the original Alien film…

20:44Jawad MirYeah

20:44James... That expands on that mythology. So yeah, I think Alien fans are gonna go crazy over this movie. And like you said, I mean, it should make a lot of money, but it is coming out in the middle of August, which is never always the greatest time. It's always like often where studios put blockbusters that aren't the biggest films anymore. You know, i… normally it's June or July where they kind of go for their really bigger movies, but, yeah, it'll be interesting. I'm su… I think it will make money though. I th… you know, I think when the reviews come out, which I think... I mean, the early reactions of social media have been really good, I think. So I can't see why it wouldn't make loads of money, but who knows in this strange time that we live in as far as cinemas are concerned?

21:27Jawad MirI don't, I don't know if it will open big or not. That I don't know, but I do think the reviews and the word of mouth is gonna extend its duration, and it's just gonna make... You know, it's gonna have minor drops every week. 'Cause I... Even if anybody hasn't seen any of the Alien films, which I doubt is the case, but let's assume there's a lot of people who haven't, this film stand its, stand on its own too. Like, you don't have to per se watch everything. Well, maybe, but again, at the same time, it, the, it's the way it's done…

21:56JamesIt would help if you've seen the original Alien.

21:58Jawad MirYeah.

21:58JamesBut at the same time, I think you're right. I think you could watch it without having seen that, and then you'd be intrigued to go back and watch that. And that's the only one you'd really need to see because that's the only one that's preceded it effectively, apart from, I suppose... Well, there is a reference to Prometheus at one point I think, isn't there, in the film? So…

22:15Jawad MirYes

22:16James... You could have seen Prometheus and Covenant as well, but you'd probably really start with Alien I think. That's where you should start.

22:25Jawad MirYeah, I actually highly recommend you watch Alien 3. I saw it last week. I did an episode on it. Aside from like few CGI terrible effects, like there was some great puppeteer work, but the full shots were really bad, which I think was where David Fincher and the studio had disagreement. That's just my guess, along with the other, gentleman who I spoke to, Ethan, on the podcast. But have you ever seen The Mist?

22:50JamesThe Frank Darabont movie?

22:52Jawad MirYeah.

22:53JamesYeah, a long time ago, but I have seen it.

22:55Jawad MirBut you know the entire premise of it and everything. So I was reminded of The Mist even though Alien 3 came way before that. Just the cinematography, the texture, the art direction of the characters, and there's a priest character in Alien 3, which reminded me of the pre… the religious character in, The Mist. So i… it's a really, it's a, it's an interesting film. I don't know why people didn't like it. But you look back at it, aside from, again, visual effects, I thought it was a pretty good film. So if you have a chance on a plane or anything else, just take a look at it. It's pretty good.

23:28JamesI mean, I remember the thing, overriding memory I have of it, 'cause obviously I think a prison colony, you know, penal colony is quite a good setting…

23:37Jawad MirYeah

23:37James... Because that does take you away from the i… idea of a spaceship. I mean, obviously Aliens i… isn't really set on a spaceship because they land on the planet, and they're…

23:49Jawad MirYeah

23:49James... The claustrophobia there comes from just them being trapped in this kind of, well, facility where i… i… you know, sort of a colony facility. And that works pretty well I think as a sort of contained space. But, obviously a prison colony works just as well as a contained space. But I have this sort of overriding memory, and you can correct me if I'm wrong because you've seen it recently, of the kind of final bit where they're kind of running through all these corridors, and the camera's kind of zooming through all these corridors as they're being chased by the alien. That to me didn't work at all as a sequence. That's where the film really fell apart as I remember, but it, again, it is a long time since I've seen it. But there, well, there are some really striking images, as well, particularly, again, I won't go into it, but with what happens to Ripley at the end of the film I think is a particularly…

24:35Jawad MirYeah

24:35James... Striking moment. So it has its moments for sure, Alien 3

24:40Jawad MirYou're right about the POV shots. I think what they tried to do there was the... To me, again, it felt like they were trying to... There are shots like that in the original Predator, I don't know if you remember, with the heat signature, and you see, like, the predator chasing Arnold Schwarzenegger's character. And I felt they tried to do that, but it didn't work because some of the shots were upside down because the alien was, you know, crawling upside down. And it just kind of ruined that tension in the moment. So yeah, but, you know, it, nevertheless, it's, it's a, it's a good film overall. Decent.

25:15JamesCould we... Without spoiling it, and you may not want to do this, so just shut me down if you do, but could we allude to the AI of the, of the film without revealing what the AI I'm talking about? A certain character, let's say, we won't need, we won't name the character, but for s… for spoiler reasons, but did you think that worked? Because that, again, weirdly reminded me of Rogue One, where you had, Peter Cushing, his Grand… Grand Moff Tarkin character, and a young Carrie Fisher sort of Princess Leia being sort of reborn via, you know, AI, and we have something similar here with a certain character, that fans will be familiar with. Did you think that worked for you?

25:58Jawad MirWithout saying what it is, but I think it did. It did. If it, if it, the movie had come out two years ago, probably wouldn't have. Because in the time and the space that we live in now, with AI being like, you know, a topic of conversation in everyone's life, I think it did. I think it did.

26:17JamesYeah, I think it, from a... If we just talk from a purely technical point of view…

26:21Jawad MirYeah

26:21James... I think it was pretty good. And…

26:22Jawad MirCharacter-wise too, I think.

26:24JamesYeah, character-wise. So how they did it vocally, I'm not sure, but again, very clever, however they did it. So, I was, I was convinced. And there was lots of shots of,.. I noticed when that character was first introduced, you would see shots from behind the character or from a distance, so they didn't have too many shots close up where you might start to pick holes in it. There was a lot of shots of the character on a, on a screen or things like that. So again, the screen was quite fuzzy, so you wouldn't really, you know, deliberately... So you wouldn't really be able to study that character too much to sort of pick holes in the AI, which I think was pretty good anyway, but they deliberately held back on too many shots so that you kind of bought it, and I think that was quite a smart piece of filmmaking.

27:13Jawad MirI agree, and I think one thing that... So I mean, nowadays anybody can, you know, there are softwares out there, I can take your voice and take 30 seconds of it and throw it into the AI system and make you say things that you've never said or vice versa, right? So that technology is accessible. One thing which I al… I don't understand, this was a problem in, what was that S… Martin Scorsese movie that came out?

27:37JamesThe Irishman.

27:39Jawad MirYeah. I have seen people on YouTube, like with $50 budget, do a better job in making them look young than a studio that spent, you know, few, three, four, $5 million on it. So I think the technology, I don't know why some of the studios, I'm not gonna talk in detail about Alien: Romulus, but there is really good technology and people who execute that technology out there for decent dollars, and I just don't know why... I think, I'm pretty sure after Alien: Romulus comes out on DVD and everything, or even, you know, whenever they show some scenes from it, people will take that and output a better version of that in terms of visually. So I don't know. Nevertheless, it was great. I'm just saying there were certain moments where, I don't know if you noticed it, I noticed it kind of didn't look that good, and that's why they tried to kind of cover it up a little bit.

28:39JamesYeah.

28:39Jawad MirYou know, which…

28:39JamesWell, there were a couple of moments that didn't quite…

28:41Jawad MirYeah

28:41James... Work, but generally…

28:43Jawad MirYeah

28:43James... Speaking... I mean, certainly, like you said, compare it to The Irishman, but that film was made now, what, sort of three years ago or something?

28:49Jawad MirYeah.

28:49JamesAnd in that bracket, and probably the CG or the AI was done a year earlier than that. You know, so realistically, there has been quite a lot of development in the last few years, and it's getting there, basically. I mean, it's, it's an interesting point. It raises lots of questions, of course. It kind of made, while watching it, made me start to think about, you know, the morality of doing this, of bringing back actors. I mean, they did it on Rogue One, as we talked about. I mean, that's interesting, but it is a side issue. But I think from a technical point of view, you, y… it was not quite flawless, but certainly getting there.

29:26Jawad MirIt was, yeah. No, again, look, visual effects can be sometimes not perfect, but if the story and the performances and the characters are decent enough, people tend to forget those things, right? And I think you pinpoint those things more when the story is weak. So, you know, a… and anyways, it, great film. I highly recommend people watch it. I really hope, I was googling it yesterday and I even went on Amazon, I hope there's an art of our Alien: Romulus book that comes out, because there's some breathtaking shots in there, that I wish I could talk about it, but I can't. But yeah, I couldn't find anything. Maybe later this year, maybe next year.

30:07JamesYeah, it would be, it would be nice. I mean, I know when we, saw the advanced footage, the guy doing the Q&A, moderating the Q&A with the director, is a journalist called Ian Nathan, who's written a lot about the Alien films in the past. So I kind of imagine if anyone's gonna be doing one, it'll probably be him, but I don't know for sure if he's, if he's doing one. But, yeah, it certainly merits a kind of making of book, because, you know, w… when you, when you get a film, you know, get a film so right, you really wanna celebrate… The people behind it, not just the director, but obviously all the team behind it as well and, you know, and the cast. So yeah, there's a lot to... There's a lot to unpack in how they made that film and, you know, he really... You could tell Fede is a real fan of that franchise.

31:01Jawad MirYeah.

31:01JamesAnd he wasn't... I mean, I saw one s… I haven't seen too many social media reactions, but one was kind of saying that, you know, it really gets it right because it's not a film about fan service. It's not, and there's not, I mean, there's obviously callbacks to the original Alien and so forth, but it's not a film that's loaded with Easter eggs in the way you'll get with a Deadpool and Wolverine movie, but that's obviously done more for comic effect, of course. But here, it's all done in service of the story, and I think that is probably why it's been a, well, why we clearly both like it and why it's a successful film.

31:35Jawad Mir100%. Awesome. That's great. What's, what are you up to now that we're just gonna wrap it up? Are you working on anything that you don't wanna talk about?

31:45JamesWell, I've just had a book out, well, it was a month or so ago, on, the Adam Wingard film, Godzilla, x Kong…

31:56Jawad MirAll right

31:56James... The New Empire. That was effectively an art book. That was a little different for me because I got to speak to, well, you know, artists, basically. Storyboard artists and concept artists, and that, you don't normally, at least in the books I've done in the past, I haven't really had a chance to speak to those kind of guys. So, and it was funny, 'cause most of them had done their work probably years ago. And obviously the, you know, the film then gets, you know, the characters get developed and so on and so forth. So it was kind of funny, I would often do a Zoom chat with these guys and upload their, all their work onto the, onto the screen so they could talk me through it, and half of them had kind of forgotten what they'd done, 'cause it had been so long ago, or things had evolved and morphed and changed. So that was interesting. I had a great time with Adam. He was a fantastic guy, gave me a lot of time to get that book done. So yeah. And I am working on something now which I can't quite talk about yet, I don't think.

32:57JamesBut huge movie, that's all I'll say.

33:00Jawad MirI, and I think I know what it is, and I won't say it either.

33:03JamesOkay. But we…... Should definitely talk about it as and when it's, it's ready to go, 'cause, I'm sure you're a fan of it and, there'll be some great stories to talk about.

33:14Jawad MirI can't wait for that. I really can't wait for that, and I'm really anticipating that. Even before you mentioned it, I had an idea that... But anyways, looking forward to it. Great stuff. Thank you so much, James, for your time, man. I really appreciate it. We'll talk more I'm sure in the next coming months or weeks or whatever about a spec… specific film.

33:33JamesYeah

33:33Jawad MirSo looking forward to that.

33:34JamesAlways a pleasure talking to you.

33:36Jawad MirTake care, James.

33:36JamesCheers. Bye.