WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a Trump administration appeal that argues migrants have no right to seek asylum at the southern border.
Rather, the government says border agents may block asylum seekers from stepping onto U.S. soil and turn away their claims without a hearing.
The new case seeks to clarify the immigration laws and resolve an issue that has divided past administrations and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Under federal law, migrants who faces persecution in their home countries may apply for asylum and receive a screening hearing if they are “physically present in the United States” or if such a person “arrives in the United States.”
Since 2016, however, the Obama, Biden and Trump administrations responded to surges at the border by adopting temporary rules which required migrants to wait on the Mexican side before they could apply for asylum.
But in May, a divided 9th Circuit Court ruled those restrictions were illegal if they prevented migrants from applying for asylum.
“To ‘arrive’ means ‘to reach a destination,’” wrote Judge Michelle Friedland, citing a dictionary definition. “A person who presents herself to an official at the border has ‘arrived.’”
She said this interpretation “does not radically expand the right to asylum.” By contrast, the “government’s reading would reflect a radical reconstruction of the right to apply for asylum because it would give the executive branch vast discretion to prevent people from applying by blocking them at the border.”
“We therefore conclude that a non-citizen stopped by U.S. officials at the border is eligible to apply for asylum,” she wrote.
The 2-1 decision upheld a federal judge in San Diego who ruled for migrants who had filed a class-action suit and said they were wrongly denied an asylum hearing.
But Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to review and reverse the appellate ruling, noting 15 judges of the 9th Circuit joined dissents that called the decision “radical” and “clearly wrong.”
In football, a “running back does not ‘arrive in’ the end zone when he is stopped at the one-yard line,” Sauer wrote.
He said federal immigration law “does not grant aliens throughout the world a right to enter the United States so that they can seek asylum.” From abroad, they may “seek admission as refugees,” he said, but the government may enforce its laws by “blocking illegal immigrants from stepping on U.S. soil.”
Immigrants rights lawyers advised the court to turn away the appeal because the government is no longer using the “metering” system that required migrants to wait for a hearing.
Since June 2024, they said, the government has restricted inspections and processing of these noncitizens under a different provision of law that authorizes the president to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of alien” if he believes they would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
The government also routinely sends back migrants who illegally cross the border.
But the solicitor general said the asylum provision should be clarified.
The justices voted to hear the case of Noem vs. Al Otro Lado early next year and decide “whether an alien who is stopped on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border ‘arrives in the United States’ within the meaning” of federal immigration law.
With each year, horror movies have become increasingly popular among moviegoers, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles plans to recognize it with a new museum exhibit.
The immersive “Horror Show” presentation will chronicle the genre’s “enormous cultural impact and enduring legacy” with a focus on its tropes, themes, and resonance. From a starting point dubbed “The Hallway,” visitors can explore six different hubs modeled after the most well-known sub-genres: Religion, Science, Slasher, Ghosts, Gothic, and Psychological. Each hub will highlight specific films—like Get Out, Ju-On, 1931’s Dracula, and the original Alien—and offer behind-the-scenes insight at their production and storytelling. Finally, there’ll be a catalog and public programming that includes film screenings, gallery talks, and even educational tours that’ll get more information at a later date.
“Throughout film history, horror has thrilled and moved audiences, acting as a powerful outlet for expression and a tool for social commentary,” said the Academy’s senior exhibitions curator Jessica Niebel. “Through these stories, people have found catharsis and community among fellow horror fans around the world. I can’t wait for everyone—from horror enthusiasts to the horror-curious—to see The Horror Show.”
If all this sounds good to you, there’s a catch: The Horror Showwon’t actually start until September 20, 2026, and it’ll run through July 25, 2027. At time of writing, you can’t buy tickets that far ahead, but you can at least plan things out if you’re not local to LA.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s filming may take a pause after Tom Holland suffered a mild on-set injury. Joachim Rønning’s next film after Tron: Ares is heading to Paramount. Plus, 20th Century may have found its next Alien director. To me, my spoilers!
Scream 7
According to Entertainment Weekly, Hayden Panettiere is confirmed to return as her fan-favorite character, Kirby Reed, in Scream 7.
Here Be Monsters
Deadline reports Paramount has acquired the rights to Joachim Rønning’s next film, Here Be Monsters, described “as an intense survival thriller at sea reminiscent of films like Alien and The Thing” with “franchise ambitions.” Ridley Scott is attached to produce.
Alien
According to a new rumor from World of Reel, Demián Rugna (Where Evil Lurks, Terrified) may be 20th Century’s top choice to direct the next theatrical Alien project.
Avengers: Doomsday
A handbag posted to Instagram by make-up artist Giovanna Ponci seemingly reveals every character’s costume in Avengers: Doomsday—including the returning X-Men. Head over to Comic Book to have a look (and appreciate Mystique’s comic-accurate white dress finally making the transition to screen).
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Deadline reports a poorly timed stunt caused Tom Holland to suffer a “mild” concussion while filming Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The actor was briefly “hospitalized amid filming on the Glasgow set” and will refrain from filming for the next few days to recover. Sony and Marvel are reportedly discussing how to continue production in the meantime.
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Universal has released two separate trailers for a French remake of The Incredible Shrinking Man starring Jean Dujardin.
Theater Is Dead
Elsewhere, the ancient but fledgling medium of theater demands human sacrifice to keep its performances running in the trailer for Theater Is Dead.
Gen V
Finally, HBO Max has released a “this season on…” trailer for Gen V‘s second year.
Alien: Earth just dropped a chest-burstingly good episode ahead of next week’s finale (read io9’s recap here), but fans are just as eager to learn what’s next for the sci-fi series on the big screen. One who would know is Fede Álvarez, who helmed last year’s Alien: Romulus and is closely involved in its sequel. He’s not directing it, but he’s helping choose who does—and he co-wrote the script with a bit of important Alien history in mind.
While some fans (ahem) think Alien 3 is actually pretty entertaining, it is a universally acknowledged truth that the 1992 David Fincher-directed release does two characters from 1986’s Aliens extremely dirty.
After Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), her sorta romantic interest Hicks (Michael Biehn), her sorta adopted daughter Newt (Carrie Henn), and mangled heroic android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) escaped the dreaded LV-426, Alien 3 tells us, they end up crash-landing on a prison planet. Only Ripley survives, aside from a facehugger whose presence is necessary for Alien 3 to retain its expected creature horror.
It’s devastating not just for Ripley but also for the audience, who surely would have liked to see Hicks and Newt carry on after narrowly escaping the terrible fates met by nearly every other character in Aliens. Álvarez, who clearly has a deep love of the franchise, is well aware of this fact, and he wasn’t about to let the same thing happen to the survivors of Romulus.
According to a YouTube video from Epic Film Guys Jeremy (via ComingSoon) documenting Álvarez on a panel at Cincinnati’s recent HorrorHound Weekend, the director feels fans’ specific brand of Alien 3 pain. After explaining he always intended to just direct one Alien entry, he noted:
“But we [Álvarez and his co-writer, Rodo Sayagues] did want to write it. Mostly it’s because we love the characters we created, so we want to make sure no one kills them right at the beginning of the next one… They went and killed Hicks and Newt just like that, and we were like, ‘Hey, let’s not let that happen.’ So we wrote it and made sure they stayed alive, and now we can let someone else make it.”
Good news for fans of Cailee Spaeny’s Rain and David Jonsson’s Andy, who may yet live again—and keep the Alien series streak of exploring unconventional sibling relationships (with Alien: Earth now in the mix) alive too.
Sigourney Weaver recently shared her thoughts on Alien: Earth, the first live-action TV project in the Alien franchise. Weaver gained recognition as an actress with her performance as Ellen Ripley in 1979’s Alien.
She reprised her role in two subsequent movies: Aliens (1986) and Alien 3 (1992). Weaver also voiced the character in the 2014 video game Alien: Isolation. For her outing in Aliens, Weaver even received an Oscar nod for Best Actress in 1987.
Sigourney Weaver is ‘really enjoying’ Alien: Earth
In an interview with PEOPLE, Sigourney Weaver revealed that she is “really enjoying” Noah Hawley’s Alien Earth during an appearance PEOPLE/EW and Shutterstock Studio at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
“What I admire about it is the scope is so much more profound than just an Alien movie,” the actress said. “It’s about our world and what’s dominating the world in 100 years, and to me it’s right on.”
Weaver’s latest feature, action horror thriller Dust Bunny, premiered on Monday at TIFF as part of Midnight Madness. The cast also includes Mads Mikkelsen, David Dastmalchian, Rebecca Henderson, and Sophie Sloan. It premieres in US theaters this December.
Reflecting on what Hawley has accomplished with Alien: Earth, Weaver lauded the concept of the “new creatures based on children.” This is likely a reference to the hybrids like Sydney Chandler’s Wendy, who was created by implanting the consciousness of a terminally ill child into a synthetic body.
“All these things are so remarkable and they’re just building and building and building,” Weaver added.
According to Weaver, the new monsters and creatures in Alien: Earth make it hard to believe that she is watching a TV show. “And the monsters that he’s also bringing in are just terrifying. It’s like, we don’t have enough problems with the alien, we need 50 more,” Weaver praised. “I can’t believe I’m watching TV.”
Alien: Earth airs on FX and FX on Hulu weekly on Tuesdays.
Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on SuperHeroHype.
Noah Hawley recently discussed the ending of Alien: Earth Episode 5, “In Space, No One…” The flashback installment staged a kind of stand-alone story that re-created the feel of Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, showing how the doomed USCSS Maginot crashed into Earth after its creatures escaped. With sets mirroring the Nostromo, the one-hour episode played like an alternate version of the original movie. Hawley also indirectly suggested that the ending twist was inspired by Elon Musk.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about the latest episode, Noah Hawley explained, “This allowed me — in the middle of trying to innovate what [the Alien franchise could be as a series] — to also pick up the gauntlet for classic Alien to say, ‘We could do classic Alien and do it as well as anyone.’” He added, “By the time the xenomorph enters the story, you’re six tragedies deep with these other creatures. Then the xenomorph arrives and it just escalates.”
The Episode 5 ending twist revealed that Boy Kavalier, founder of Prodigy Corporation, sabotaged the Maginot to make it crash in his territory and steal the creatures. Hawley said, “I don’t look at our tech billionaires and think these guys are orchestrating some master plan. I think you have a lot of ADHD billionaires with impulse control issues.” He explained that the “boy genius is not a terribly thoughtful and calculating guy” who believes failure is impossible.
Though Hawley never mentioned a name, his remarks about “people who think they can go to space, re-invent travel, drill in the earth and enter politics” were widely understood as commentary on Elon Musk. He added, “They’re doing all of these at the same time when none of them are necessarily being done well. They’re just all being done a lot.”
Andy Yu’s character Teng spied on a crew member before the xenomorph killed him. Hawley clarified, “It’s always open to interpretation… But yeah, for me, he’s a creepy dude.”
Alien: Earth airs Tuesdays on FX and Hulu.
Originally reported by Anubhav Chaudhry on SuperHeroHype.
Ben and Justin discuss ‘Alien: Isolation,’ with author Andy Kelly later joining in on the conversation. Then Steve Ahlman and Matt James pop by to give their impressions of ‘Silent Hill 2’ and ‘Metaphor: ReFantazio.’
Ben and Justin Charity tiptoe through the halls of Sevastopol to discuss the 10-year anniversary of Alien: Isolation and their experiences with the cult classic. Then they bring on Andy Kelly, author of Perfect Organism: An Alien: Isolation Companion, to discuss the game’s legacy, horror credentials, innovative AI system, and impact on Alien, as well as what they hope to see from the newly announced ‘Isolation’ sequel (15:49). After that, Ben and Charity talk about Netflix and Amazon’s big bets on a Tomb Raider revival, the history of the franchise, and Ben’s impressions of the new Netflix series Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (56:58). Finally, Steve Ahlman and Matt James pop in to give their impressions of Silent Hill 2 and Metaphor: ReFantazio (84:32).
Host: Ben Lindbergh Guests: Justin Charity, Andy Kelly, Steve Ahlman, and Matt James Producers: Devon Renaldo and Eduardo Ocampo Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal
Good or bad taste is difficult to define, but easy to point out, and Alien: Romulus, from Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez (who famously delivered a fantastic Evil Dead flick over a decade ago), offers a bizarre mix of both. It’s clear that Álvarez wants to hearken back to the analog, tactile sci-fi vibes of the original Alien flicks, with plenty of satisfyingly twisty knobs and low-fi computer screens that will delight any old-school fan. And with a great, young cast that includes Civil War’s Cailee Spaeny and The Last of Us’ Isabela Merced, Romulus feels like it’s courting both the original Alien lovers and a younger, fresher group of potential fans. And it’s fast, too—the two-hour run-time flies by without any filler, and a perfectly paced build-up results in a third act that will have your heart pumping almost the entire time.
But the massive weak point in Romulus’ hull is its reliance on winks, nods, and nostalgia—including one poor-taste cameo that made me cringe every time the character was on-screen. Though I think any casual Alien fan will enjoy the film and miss many of the Easter eggs, there are some egregious references throughout that had my eyes rolling around in my head. Nostalgia is a helluva drug.
Alien: Romulus looks damn good
Álvarez reportedly told the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con crowd that seeing Romulus didn’t require prior knowledge of other Alien films, and that “member berries cannot be the full meal” (a reference to a South Park joke about nostalgia), but I’m not so sure that’s true. From the moment Romulus opens, there are references aplenty—the opening shot shows the wreckage of the Nostromo, the ship from the first film, floating in the empty vacuum of space, for Engineer’s sake.
Though after that, Álvarez swiftly (and smartly) turns the attention to Alien: Romulus’ cast of young adults, who live and work in a dreary, depressing mining colony called Jackson’s Star where it’s always raining and everyone is always sick. Rain Carradine (Spaeny) and her “brother” Andy (David Jonsson), a damaged Weyland-Yutani synthetic reprogrammed by Rain’s late father to protect her at all costs, live a life of indentured servitude—Rain is forced to work in the hopes that she’ll earn enough hours to leave Jackson’s Star and head to Yvaga II, a terraformed planet that’s less miserable.
After a Weyland-Yutani employee denies Rain’s request to go off-planet, she jumps at the chance to change her fate: A ragtag bunch of teenagers (and her friends) discover a “Weyu” ship drifting in the planet’s atmosphere, and they want to fly up and steal its crypods so they can venture out to Yvaga themselves. The problem? They need Andy, who can access all of the ship’s systems, even though his strange gait and stammer indicate that he isn’t in perfect working condition.
Image: 20th Century Studios
Andy and Rain’s relationship is the beating heart of Romulus, played to perfection by Spaeny and Jonsson—from the moment his big, sad eyes appear on screen, I know Andy is going to break my heart. Andy’s affinity for puns, which he struggles to get out due to his stammer, endears you to him within moments, and Rain’s good-natured annoyance at his bad jokes further defines their lovely relationship. Romulus tries to fill out the rest of its character tropes like previous Alien films, with a crass and rude British guy, his grim, no-nonsense partner, a kind-hearted heartthrob, and a sweet (and newly pregnant) best friend, and the young actors all play them well, even if their characters aren’t fully fleshed out. But Rain and Andy? I’d die for them.
Visually, Romulus is as close to perfect as a sci-fi horror flick can get. When the shuttle carrying the teens up to the derelict Weyu ship (which is actually a decommissioned outpost, and, as you might suspect, full of facehuggers) soars upward into the planet’s upper atmosphere, the visual effects dazzle: rain pelts the hull, lightning flashes all around it, and strange, red-orange veins of light run through the clouds. When it bursts through the cloud cover, Rain sees the planet’s sun for the first time ever, and I feel a similar stirring of awe in my gut.
Romulus truly is beautiful, from the cinematography to the set design to the way the iconic xenomorphs look. Álvarez impressively and effectively plays with color, light, and texture (wispy gray smoke, white-hot steam, tar-black blood), and the pitch-perfect mix of practical and digital effects blends iconic Alien iconography with impressive, modern tech. And then there’s the digitally recreated elephant in the room.
Romulus and references
As I mentioned, there are a lot of Easter eggs in Alien: Romulus. The decommissioned outpost (split into two massive sections called Remus and Romulus) is powered by a computer called MU/TH/UR 9000, a newer version of the one running the Nostromo in 1979’s Alien. When one of the motley crew members bullies and denigrates Andy, he stammers back a quote from Aliens, saying he prefers the term “artificial human” just like Bishop told Ripley back then. The outpost’s door mechanisms are the same ones from 2014 survival horror game Alien: Isolation. Hell, even the original xenomorph, the one Ripley blows out of the Nostromo airlock, haunts Romulus—its corpse is suspended from the ceiling in the derelict ship, its acid blood having burnt through several floors and destroyed the place.
But the most egregious Easter egg is a rotten one: a digitally recreated Ian Holm, who played a secret synthetic in the original film that was placed on the Nostromo by Weyland-Yutani to help further the company’s attempts to secure humanity’s fate in the stars by any means necessary. The digital avatar of Holm, who passed away in 2020, looks bad and uncanny almost every time it’s on screen, and the fact that the damaged robot (who goes by Rook in Romulus) is just a torso perpetually leaking the synthetic’s iconic white diagnostic fluid makes it even worse. His appearance is so bizarre and unnecessary (and so prevalent, as Rook has a ton of screen time), that it sours so much of what makes Romulus enjoyable.
Image: 20th Century Studios
From the moment Rook is introduced, I watch the rest of Romulus with my eyes narrowed suspiciously, waiting for another Easter egg to (perhaps unintentionally, perhaps not) puncture the fourth wall and boop me on the nose with a “see what I did there?” Thankfully, the cast’s incredible acting and the film’s perfectly paced action effectively distract me from my fear of another reference lurking down a dark corridor. There are several truly gruesome scenes—acid burning off fingers, a facehugger artificially pumping someone’s lungs while attached to them, the gnarly cracking of ribs and spines, and a few brand-new takes on the iconic chest bursting scene—that will delight body horror fans. And all of this action is propelled forward by Spaeny and Jonsson, the latter of whom does such an impressive 180 with his character that it leaves me speechless. Romulus also adds a bit more lore to the franchise, specifically around a certain stage in the xenomorph’s evolution, that gives Álvarez an excuse to put a giant, wet, undulating vagina in the film, just as H.R. Giger intended.
But just when I’ve forgotten about the torso of Holm lurking in a dimly lit corner, when I’ve just been delighted by a zero-G action sequence that involves floating, spiraling acid blood Rain and Andy must avoid while suspended in mid-air, when I realize that Álvarez almost perfectly times the outpost’s countdown timer until it will collide with the planet’s icy ring to the runtime of the film, Romulus comes back around to the references. The proto pulse rifles from Aliens, Rook spouting an exact quote Holm uttered in Alien, Spaeny in her cryo-undies wielding a gun just like Ripley, Andy stammering “get away from her you bitch,” a human/xeno hybrid that makes your skin crawl, a face-to-face moment just like the meme.
Thankfully, Romulus ends strong, with an emotionally powerful, deliciously disgusting final scene with a jump-scare that almost made me pee myself. I just wish that it had the confidence to stand on its own a bit more, rather than deliver nods and recycled lines on a silver platter with a wry smile. Though, whether you’re a fan of the franchise or not, I believe Alien: Romulus is worth a watch—maybe some fans will adore the references, and those who know nothing about Ridley Scott’s legendary sci-fi universe can remain blissfully unaware and just enjoy a well-paced, well-shot, well-acted romp. It’s a win-win in that regard.
Sean is joined by Chris Ryan to react to a handful of casting tidbits (1:00), before digging into the newest installment in the Alien franchise, Alien: Romulus (11:00). They discuss the new movie’s fealty to the original, the chances it takes, how it works as a pure horror movie, and more. Then, they rank all nine movies in the franchise (53:00), before Sean is joined by Romulus director Fede Álvarez to talk about making a movie in the franchise that he is a superfan of, some of the particular choices made around fan service, how he approached practical effects during the production, and more (1:11:00).
Host: Sean Fennessey Guests: Chris Ryan and Fede Álvarez Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner
The Xenomorph in Alien: Romulus.Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
Like the Terminator, Alien is a franchise in which no new installment stands a chance of being the best. The fight here is for third place, behind Ridley Scott’s chilling original and James Cameron’s action-packed sequel. Most of the subsequent efforts have catered to different tastes, leaning more towards cerebral science fiction (Prometheus), bleak character drama (Alien3), or goofy action schlock (Alien vs. Predator). With his first swing at the franchise, Alien: Romulus, director Fede Álvarez makes the daring choice to aim at the dead tonal center between Scott and Cameron’s twin masterpieces. The result is an adrenaline-fueled slasher movie in space that sacrifices the subtlety and creeping dread of the original for more shock, gore and thrilling, fist-pumping violence. It’s a shallower product than either of its inspirations, but it also has its own, distinct energy. It doesn’t totally jettison the franchise’s 45 years of baggage, but when it does, what’s left is a damn good monster movie.
ALIEN: ROMULUS ★★★(3/4 stars) Directed by:Fede Álvarez Written by: Fede Álvarez, Rodo Sayagues Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu Running time: 119 mins.
The setup for Romulus is reminiscent of Álvarez’s own calling card film, 2016’s Don’t Breathe. A group of twentysomethings born into poverty on a corporate-owned mining planet seize on an opportunity to escape their miserable lot. It should be a simple heist—slip aboard a derelict spacecraft, steal the equipment they need to journey to a nicer planet, get out before it crashes. But the vessel isn’t as empty as they’d presumed. There are terrifying monsters onboard intent on either gutting or impregnating them. Will any of these young hard cases live to see their better tomorrow?
Leading this ensemble is Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine, the heist’s most reluctant participant and our obvious Final Girl. Spaeny gives a reliably solid performance, but the real star of the show is David Jonsson as Andy, a glitchy android who she sees as a brother. Andy was programmed to protect her when she was growing up, but now she’s become his caretaker. Their relationship is both charming and discomfiting. Andy adores Rain, but he’s programmed to. He’ll do what’s best for her at every turn, with a smile on his face, but is he also being exploited? It’s an interesting new wrinkle to the Alien franchise’s meditation on artificial intelligence, which has been depicted as either sinister or benign. As Andy, David Jonsson gets to play a little bit of both. The emotional core of Romulus is the way Rain and Andy are each transformed by their nightmare in space, and how it forces them to reevaluate each other.
Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson in Alien: Romulus.Murray Close/Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
This isn’t to say that Alien: Romulus is a predominantly cerebral or even emotional experience. Far from it. After roughly 40 minutes of establishing the characters and setting up potential future calamities, Romulus becomes an unrelenting thrill ride that fulfills every last one of its wicked promises.
Romulus leans harder into being a monster movie than any of its predecessors, and Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues seem committed to using the entire monster. Too many Alien sequels speed through the most viscerally terrifying part of the xenomorph’s bizarre life cycle, the “facehugger” stage represented by a skittering arachnid that latches to a victim’s head, forces its ovipositor down their throats, and implants them with their ultra-violent offspring. Romulus, by contrast, gives these little bastards nearly half the movie, allowing them their own chase and stalking scenes. As in Don’t Breathe, Romulus doesn’t move on to its next threat or premise until the last one is completely exhausted.
Cailee Spaeny in Alien: Romulus.Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
Álvarez shows admirable restraint in the introduction of the more famous eight-foot-tall adult xenomorph, treating it as an obscure new threat rather than an iconic character whose action figure stood on your cousin’s windowsill. There is a (hopefully, justified) assumption that this will be many viewers’ first Alien movie, and the effort to wring maximum suspense from the premise is valuable even to a longtime fan. The film does eventually make the typical third-act shift from horror to action, but until then, “scary” is prioritized over “cool.”
Nevertheless. Romulus still indulges in some of the worst impulses of the “requel” or “legacy sequel.” An original Alien cast member is digitally resurrected for a small role, and they look absolutely awful. This is the first new Alien film under Disney’s ownership of the franchise, and it seems as if they simply cannot resist employing this technology at every opportunity, regardless of whether or not it adds any value to the story. There are a few other cringy, incongruous nods to the franchise’s legacy that distract from what is otherwise a fully satisfying and self-contained space slasher.
The past decade has convinced audiences to expect less from Hollywood blockbusters, not just in terms of quality, but from how much of a story is told in each movie. At multiple junctures, Alien: Romulus teases a development that seems like a hook for a sequel or spin-off, but Álvarez doesn’t wait until the inevitable next Alien to play all of his cards. Romulus leaves nothing on the table. It is, for a change, an entire damn movie.
Could this be a portent of the franchise’s future? Might the xenomorph—the perfect movie monster—become less like Michael Myers and more like a zombie or vampire, a terror that can be used to tell a variety of horror stories rather than as a foil to a handful of protagonists or as installments in a dense mythology? This possibility is as exciting as the film itself.
Alien: Romulus has a lot to prove when it comes to drawing from the sci-fi franchise’s body of work to produce a film worth another go-around. Fortunately, the director Fede Alvarez appears to have done his homework and a bit of extra credit pulling from the series’ 2014 sleeper-hit video game as well.
In an interview with GamesRadar+, Alvarez revealed that playing Alien: Isolation while filming Don’t Breathe inspired him to make a horror film as terrifying as the atmospheric first-person horror game.
“Alien: Isolation was kind of what made me see that Alien could truly be terrifying and done well [today],” Alvarez told GamesRadar+. “That’s why, at the time, I was like, ‘Fuck, if I could do anything, I would love to do Alien and scare the audience again with that creature and those environments.’ I was playing, and realizing how terrifying Alien could be if you take it back to that tone.”
Alvarez wasn’t just inspired by Alien: Isolation’s tone, he also lifted the game’s visual clues to build suspense and dread for moviegoers. As GamesRadar+ notes, Alien: Isolation has not-so-safe save points in the form of an emergency phone. Instead of providing players safe harbor to panic-save their progress, players are instead greeted with an excruciatingly slow operating time on the phone, leaving them vulnerable to surprise Xenomorph attacks. In layman’s terms, whenever phones appear in Alien: Isolation, gamers reflexively sit forward in their chairs in fear of something untoward happening to their virtual person.
“The movie is set up in a way [that] every time something bad is about to happen, you will see a phone,” Alvarez said. “In the game, every time you knew there’s a phone you’d go, ‘Fuck, I’m about to go into some bad set-piece.’ It’s the same thing here. You’ll see they’re planted strategically throughout the film. When you see the phone, it’s like: brace for impact.”
If Alien: Romulus’ first reactions are anything to go off of, Alvarez knocked it out of the park by playing the series’ hits while also injecting his own flair for ominous practical effects—and gamer know-how, to boot. Alien: Romulus opens August 16.
James Cameron and Alex Trebek must be two apples from the same tree. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron clearly does not care about what dorks are saying about the quality of the remasters for Aliens andTrue Lies. When asked about the losers nerds who thought the image quality should’ve been a lot better, Cameron reminds them that touching grass would probably give better quality to just about anything. “When people start reviewing your grain structure, they need to move out of mom’s basement and meet somebody. Right? I’m serious. I mean, are you fucking kidding me?” replied Cameron before giving praise to his crew. “I’ve got a great team that does the transfers. I do all the color and density work. I look at every shot, every frame, and then the final transfer is done by a guy who has been with me [for years]. All the Avatar films are done that way. Everything is done that way. Get a life, people, seriously.” For anyone who’s still worried about the color grading for Avatar: Fire and Ash or just recovering from that burn, Cameron at least offers some comfort, even if he can’t go into specifics: “It’s really fucking cool. You’re going to love it.”
When you don’t have star power or a massive superhero movie to show off in San Diego Comic-Con’s highly-visible Hall H, you have to get creative.
And Disney and its 20th Century Studios division did just that for its Alien: Romulus panel. A little theatrics — red strobe lights followed by a gurgling man stumbling on stage, then dying from a “chest burster” — and video questions from surprise filmmaker guests such as original Alien director Ridley Scott or filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, among others can go a long way to bolster the already strong clips that were shown.
And if that fails, then you leave them with parting gifts, in this case, rubber alien “face huggers” that were distributed to all 6,500 or so people who packed the cavernous hall of the San Diego Convention Center Friday, many of whom immediately proceeded to take selfies and post the photos to all their friends. Promotional messaging succeeded.
Romulus is the first movie to hit since 2017’s Alien: Covenant and is the first movie to be made since Disney’s acquisition of Fox in 2019. And while two were made in the 2010s with mixed success, those were also big-budget productions, befitting to the manner which filmmaker Ridley Scott is accustomed.
This new one was directed by Fede Álvarez, the filmmaker behind more modestly-budgeted horror movies, including his hit, Don’t Breath, and stars fresh faces and rising actors such as Cailee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fern and Aileen Wu, all of whom were in attendance Friday, minus the latter.
Alien, of course, is not some new commodity. It’s a revered movie franchise that has had some of the best filmmakers in the director’s chairs, including Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Álvarez said he felt immense pressure in taking on the movie and was standing on the shoulders of giants. But he also said the pressure went away when he was on set, which was very practical and to him, a very real environment.
“The pressure goes away, for me, when you suddenly realize you’re on tiny Weyland (a corporation in the Alien universe) shake and bake colony and every vehicle that goes around is real and the neon sign is from Aliens,” he said. “To be on this real space…”
The cast bonded strongly during the making of the movie, which was shot chronologically. But it also meant a loss when one of them shot a death scene and left the production. And as any Alien fan knows, there is a lot of death.
“It was emotional,” Álvarez noted, “because that person now has to leave and you continued with the rest of the cast. And (the deaths) kept on happening.”
The filmmaker and cast tried to honor those who came before them and for the production, that meant going back to the original designs and even hiring crewmembers such as Shane Mahan, who worked on the alien queen in Cameron’s 1986 entry, Aliens.
Álvarez described his creative process as being tortuous, with him thinking his work stinks much of the time. He believes it pushes him to strive for better results. And that honesty won over his cast.
“We could really trust him,” said Spaeny, who starred in Priscilla and Civil War. “He wanted to do something for the fans as a fan. He was very vocal.”
The filmmaker is chasing a high from film that is elusive, even as he wants to deliver that drug to the audience.
“For me, when you sit down in the theater, the logo shows up, the lights go down, I feel that this is it. This is the one that is going to change my life,” he said. “And it’s kinda crazy because most movies are shit. Five minutes in, you go, ‘This is not going to change my life.’ But for the first five seconds, you do feel that way because it did happen to you. And we all keep looking for that moment.”
And it was the ethos he brought to his set.
“It was important that we all knew that and that we honor that,” he continued. “To give 200 percent. And these kids did that to give you the movie you deserve.”
On the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, beachgoers were in for a shock when a giant water bug started to appear along the shore, researchers said.
Secret Travel Guide via Unsplash
It’s the first day of your vacation on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
You arrive at Bedis Beach, overlooking the cool blue water, and lay down your towel to claim the perfect spot.
It’s hot, the sun is beating down and you decide to wade into the water to cool down.
As you step closer to the waves, you see something on the sand. It’s almost 5 inches long and has pinchers protruding from its hardened body.
Then it scurries toward you — and goes straight for your toes.
Researchers have put Cyprus beachgoers on high alert after swimmers discovered giant water bugs on the island for the first time, according to a study published in December in the journal Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa.”
The water bugs, also known as “toe biter” bugs, are native to nations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, including Greece, Turkey and Israel, but have been absent from Cyprus shores, according to a March 20 news release in Pensoft.
That was until a few years ago when swimmers, tourists and locals started to post sightings of the bugs on social media, according to the release.
Locals began posting images and videos of the bugs on social media, asking what they might be, researchers said. Screengrab from Mineş Aygün Gökalp’s Facebook post
Lethocerus patruelis, giant water bugs or electric light bugs, are the largest bug in the heteroptera family, the researchers said, and are known for maintaining a “predatory lifestyle.”
They regularly “prey on a variety of organisms such as invertebrates, fish, turtles and even birds,” according to the study.
They are also unique in that once a female lays eggs along the water, the male of the species cares for them, a “rare behavior among animals,” the researchers said.
The first sighting of the bug in Cyprus was posted to a Facebook group called “Biodiversity of Cyprus” in 2021, and it was quickly followed by photos from others who had visited the same beach on the eastern coast of the island and saw the bug, the researchers said.
“A total of seven sightings were eventually recorded, five from social media, and two after communications between local naturalists and the authors team,” according to the study. “Out of the seven records, we managed to acquire two individuals for a thorough morphological examination.”
The giant water bugs can grow to more than 5 inches in length and likely flew over to the island from the Mediterranean mainland, the study said. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa”
The bugs were spotted along the east coast of Cyprus, the side halfway between Israel and Turkey, the researchers said.
They were also primarily found dead, or died soon after being captured, the researchers said, which suggests “they probably flew to Cyprus from the neighboring mainland.”
“The specimens landed exhausted on the shoreline,” according to the study, “or in some cases in the sea, which could indicate that they were transferred by wind or sea currents from nearby countries.”
The researchers didn’t find any of the bugs when they searched nearby waterways, suggesting the bug has not yet made a home on the island. But, because so many arrived in a short period of time, the possibility of the water bugs starting a population on Cyprus is not out of the question, the researchers said.
The bugs have not yet made a permanent home on the island, but it is a possibility, the study researchers said. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa.”
The bug is referred to as a “vicious hunter” and has “a reputation of inflicting very painful bites when handled carelessly,” according to the release. Researchers warn a resident population of the bug could cause issues for beaches and coastlines heavily populated by locals and tourists alike.
“Naturalists looking for alien-like critters can provide valuable information on the presence and a possible establishment of the species through citizen science,” the researchers said in the release. “Cypriots should keep their eyes open and their toes out of the water.”
Cyprus is an island nation in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Part of the divided island is independent while part, the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, is solely recognized by Turkey. The eastern coastline and Bedis Beach, where the insects were found, fall under the Turkish-controlled region.
Irene Wright is a McClatchy Real-Time reporter. She earned a B.A. in ecology and an M.A. in health and medical journalism from the University of Georgia and is now based in Atlanta. Irene previously worked as a business reporter at The Dallas Morning News.
Demiplane, the digital space for tabletop roleplaying games, has announced the release date for Alien RPG Nexus, the official digital companion for Free League’s award-winning Alien: The Roleplaying Game.
Alien RPG Nexus gives players tools to experience the tension and dread of dark journeys across deep space like never before. Through Alien RPG Nexus, Demiplane brings the harsh and unforgiving universe of the Alien franchise to life in an easily accessible way. Whether it’s your first expedition to the Frontier or you’re a veteran who has seen the unimaginable horrors of space.
As the digital companion for Alien: The Roleplaying Game, Demiplane’s dedicated Nexus features everything you need to start a thrilling and terrifying game session, including:
The core rules to play and create your own space adventure
A state-of-the-art character creation system and interactive character sheet
A digital game compendium that contains all of the Careers, Alien Species, Spacecrafts, and more to make playing and running the game easier than ever
Immersive, in-world artifacts to incorporate into your session
Digital dice mechanics
With Demiplane’s Alien RPG NEXUS, players are able to learn the game quickly through exploration and play, speed up game prep, and keep the tension high with fast, straightforward content and rules lookup.
Alien RPG NEXUS is set to launch on February 27, 2024. More information can be found here.
Acclaimed actor Timothy Olyphant was revealed to have joined the cast of Noah Hawley‘s upcoming Alien series.
Deadline reported that the Deadwood lead will be starring opposite Sydney Chandler in the forthcoming show. No official details involving his character have been made known, but the outlet’s sources suggest that he is playing a synth named Kirsh who serves as a mentor to Wendy — Chandler’s meta-human character. This isn’t Olyphant’s first time working with FX, as the actor previously played a recurring character in Fargo Season 4.
The FX Alien series will be the first-ever Alien story set on Earth. According to Hawley, the series will explore the more grounded aspects of the franchise. The director also touched on the inclusion of Weyland-Yutani — the massive corporation that’s found in nearly every Alien property — and how he plans to deliver a series that both captures the horror-action aspect of the Alien franchise and explores other themes established in the world.
Who is writing the Alien FX series?
The untitled Alien series is written and directed by Hawley and stars Alex Lawther, Sydney Chandler (Don’t Worry Darling), Kit Young (Shadow and Bone), Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries) as Dame Silvia, and Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger) as Slightly. Further details about its plot are still being kept under wraps, but it was reportedly developed as a prequel story set before the Sigourney Weaver-led movies.
The project is executive produced by Hawley, Ridley Scott, and Dana Gonzales, with Chris Lowenstein production. In addition to the upcoming FX series, 20th Century Studios is also set to release a brand new installment to the Alien film franchise titled Alien: Romulus, which hails from director Fede Álvarez.
In a recent interview with Deadline, FX’s Alien series creator Noah Hawley finally provided a new production update about the upcoming sci-fi drama spin-off, after filming was temporarily shutdown last August. Now that the SAG-AFTRA strike is over, Hawley confirmed that they’re currently planning to resume the Alien series production in Thailand around January or February of 2024.
“We’re getting back into production as quickly as possible,” Hawley said. “We’re shooting in Bangkok, a half a world away; shooting again in the New Year.”
In addition, the Fargo creator revealed that he was able to start editing some of the footage they got before production was halted. “I got some footage. Some of the first hour was shot before we had to shutdown. It’s stuff to play with and edit.”
Who’s involved in FX’s Alien series?
The untitled Alien series is written and directed by Hawley and stars Alex Lawther, Sydney Chandler (Don’t Worry Darling), Kit Young (Shadow and Bone), Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries) as Dame Silvia, and Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger) as Slightly. Further details about its plot are still being kept under wraps, but it was reportedly developed as a prequel story set before the Sigourney Weaver-led movies.
It will be the first-ever Alien story set on Earth. According to Hawley, the series will explore the more grounded aspects of the franchise. The director also touched on the inclusion of Weyland-Yutani — the massive corporation that’s found in nearly every Alien property — and how he plans to deliver a series that both captures the horror-action aspect of the Alien franchise and explores other themes established in the world.
The project is executive produced by Hawley, Ridley Scott, and Dana Gonzales, with Chris Lowenstein production. In addition to the upcoming FX series, 20th Century Studios is also set to release a brand new installment to the Alien film franchise titled Alien: Romulus, which hails from director Fede Álvarez.
At least one high-ranking official won’t rule out the possibility that they could be extraterrestrial in origin.
“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out,” Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD, told reporters on Sunday when asked about the possibility of aliens. “I haven’t ruled out anything at this point.”
A suspected Chinese spy balloon transfixed the nation when it was spotted over Montana in January and ultimately shot down when it reached the Atlantic earlier this month.
Since then, at least three more objects have been blown out of the skies. One was initially described as a balloon, but VanHerck hedged when asked if these additional objects were also balloons.
“I’m not gonna categorize them as balloons. We’re calling them ‘objects’ for a reason,” he said. “Certainly the event off the South Carolina coast for the Chinese spy balloon, that was clearly a balloon. These were objects.”
He also said he’s not certain how the objects are even flying.
“It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure, or it could be some type of a propulsion system,” he said.
“We’re going to remain vigilant about our airspace.” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday. “We’re going to remain vigilant about the skies over the United States.”
It’s not year clear if the objects being shot down are related to the growing number of sightings of what the Pentagon now calls “unidentified aerial phenomena,” which is their preferred term for UFOs.
It’s Black Friday, the day on which the entirety of planet Earth entirely takes leaves of its senses and spends all its money on stuff it doesn’t need for 5 percent less than it would have cost yesterday. Planet Earth this year has bought itself an entirely new moon, even though the old one’s fine, just because this one has Bluetooth. So let’s distract ourselves from all that by discovering 12 amazing new games.
As is ever the case with Indiegeddon, I am not vouching for these games, as I’ve not played any of them. Instead, I just think they look interesting, exciting, frightening, or so damned weird I couldn’t not write about them. Most of them aren’t out yet, but the most useful thing you can do for the developers is give them a wishlist on Steam: it makes a big difference.
There’s bound to be at least one game here that has you checking its release date and wishing it were sooner, unless you’re that one person in the greys who feels the need to tell the whole universe that he actually thinks they all look terrible. We feel sorry for you, that one person. Just pity, really. For everyone else, woo-hoo, let’s get going!
Stuffer Fox
Falling Frontier
Every time I see a space-based RTS that looks as cool as Falling Frontier, I think, “This will be the one! This will be the game where I conquer my fear of menus!” And then I fail. But maybe it will be this one, because damn, it looks brilliant. Four years in the making already, by only one human, this looks like it came from a team of 100 at Paradox. Just watch those spaceships asplode! It’s all about taking over a procedurally generated star system, with intel and logic as its primary factors. But then you can also design your ships, raid enemies, and do all that amazing space-strat stuff I wish I’d grown a brain for.
You, a squirrel called Bill who’s great at crafting, stumble upon an alien baby in your garden who needs your help! It’s a tale as old as time itself. The result, Bill, is a simulation game in which you must craft, farm and organize everything the baby alien needs to survive. And it’s all to explore the concepts of recycling. Which is the weirdest elevator pitch, and yet looks like it could be adorable.
Get your head around this one: A 1 to 4-player couch co-op game about attempting to maintain a spaceship in calamitous circumstances, but also in splitscreen where you see both the inside and outside of your ship at the same time. Yikes. People will be able to take on different roles on the ship, from captain to janitor, as everything goes wrong on board while trying to defend yourself from enemies. It’s all about chaos and multitasking, or as I prefer to describe it, failing as a team.
Quartet looks like an incredibly faithful classic-style JRPG, but with a new twist on its turn-based battle system. Indeed, there are eight characters in that thumbnail above, but you battle with four at a time, able to tag characters in and out as appropriate. It’s also a quartet of stories, four to choose from, played in any order you wish, and of course in an Octotraveller way, they intertwine as you play through them all. It’s an ambitious project for a five-person indie team, but it sure looks like they’re doing it.
That man has a very tiny head. That said, this is Dreambound, a visual novel that’s just had a successful Kickstarter (raising over $30,000), affording everyone the opportunity to watch handsome young men stare wistfully at one another. It’s booooy looooove. As well as that, there are also mysterious deaths, dreams that invade reality, and demons from the past to deal with, for main character Noah, in what’s already looking like a very pleasingly drawn and written adventure.
Coo, look at this! It looks like that all-too-rarely explored sweet spot between point-and-click adventure and RPG. Sky Of Tides is a sci-fi story in a civilization on the brink of war, telling the personal tale of Rin, searching for her missing father, and, you know, saving the planet Numen. (NUMEN!) It promises that your decisions will determine your character, as you explore the isometric world, and honestly, I want to be playing it already.
Elsewhere in space… Terra Invicta is another super-deep space sim, this one immediately reminding me of Stellaris, but with a far more specific focus: Earth. This is from a group of modders, best known for XCOM: Long War. The success of that mod sent them pro, and Terra Invicta is their first commercial game, a geopolitical space exploration sim, where you’re preventing (or even aiding) an alien invasion of our home planet. The game’s been out in early access for a couple of months, and is proving very popular with Steam reviewers, thanks to its complexity and scale.
An Arkanoid-like, but the blocks you hit shoot back at you! How is this not already a thing. (I think you’ll find, actually, that there was an example of this on the Amiga Rupture 3400 in Germany, in the parallel dimension of Raaaaaaa – That Guy.) The Blocks Shoot At You looks like such an obvious idea, but I’ve never seen it before: Bullet Hell Breakout. This looks like it could be my new obsession, at which I am endlessly terrible.
I love it when I can’t quite tell if it’s a video-nasty trailer or a retro FPS trailer. That’s a whole scene right now. Phobolis fits right in, its scratchy trailer at first looking like a ruined VHS video that will curse your grandchildren, then cutting to a grimy, old-school shooter. You can pick up the alpha test build of the game via Itch for a buck, or wait until the year after next when they plan to release.
Call me a sucker, but I can’t resist a game about a space cat detective who investigates a crime on an interstellar cruise ship populated by sentient carpets. As Domino, said detective cat, you explore the ship in third-person, attempting to catch a jewel thief. It’s presented so superbly down-to-earth, given the ridiculous premise, as you’ll see in that full half hour of the game in the video above.
I can’t write one of these without including a card game—there are laws. Zero Division is a cyberpunk approach, that promises to mix Magic: The Gathering with Slay The Spire. You pick three characters from a selection of nine, each of which has their own deck of 40 cards. And set deck sizes mean no deck thinning! Woo! What grabs me is the combination of cards and epic 3D monsters and robots flinging their arms and weapons around on the other side of the board. There’s a demo due in spring ‘23, and I’m definitely going to be playing it.
Always finish on an existential non-linear psychedelic platformer, that’s what my grandmother taught me. Not one to refuse sage advice, here’s Extreme Evolution: Drive to Divinity by Sam Atlas, creator of the 2022 IGF Nuovo nomination, Space Hole 2020. Extreme Evolution looks just so spectacularly fucked up, like if David Lynch had made The Lawnmower Man, and I think I’m going to be dreaming this brief trailer for the rest of my life. Oh god that spider virus thing.
