Fede Alvarez Doesn't Understand Why People Don't Like Dead Ian Holm CGI In Alien: Romulus

After hearing official confirmation (though, it's obvious) that they tried fixing the Rook CGI in ALIEN: ROMULUS for the blu-ray release, I thought I'd compare the digital release and the blu-ray and... yeah. Quite a difference, but I'm not overly impressed either. pic.twitter.com/7HXPvzNjqi

— Luke Ryan (@RazorwireRyan) January 10, 2025

 

Missing the point and wasting money, director Fede Alvarez confirmed to Empire Magazine that the
new home video release for Alien: Romulus has updated CGI of dead actor Ian Holm. In the recent interview it turns out that Alvarez convinced the studio to spend more money to fix the look of Ian Holm's CGI doppelganger, Rook, that many saw as having uncanny valley (looking weird, but almost human), including the director himself.

 

That wasn't the problem, I mean it did look bad, but it was also a bad choice. Too many directors use de-aging or other CGI for actors that are past their prime or are deceased. The easiest and most believable thing to do would have been to recast a look-a-like or just get a new actor to play the part.

Here director Fede Alvarez, just side steps those critiques of bringing back the deceased as a CGI model puppet and believes the problem was just that it didn't look as cool as it should of. Instead, he should of just cast someone else.

Initially, before reading more about it, I thought this new edition of the film was going to just show a real actor from unaltered footage, thereby getting rid of the whole ugly CGI character. Nope. They used a puppet, then a CGI overlay on top of it.

Amazingly enough, Alvarez convinced the studio to waste money to make his dead man puppet look slightly better, to which I don't think any consumer cared. I'm not sure how it's sold online or on packing, if there's a physical release "Slightly better looking Ian Holm inside." Is there a feature I can switch between the original and this new slightly better edition?

 

Fede Alvarez must be very shielded or have on blinders to go this far and not be able to admit it was a bad choice, but to double down and go back for more time to make it slightly better. Some would argue, it isn't. Sheesh.

Jeez, Hollywood do the one right thing and release the Butt-hole Cut of Cats.

read more about it here in Empire