‘Alien' director teases how the new film connects

Ridley Scott's "Alien" was back in theaters on April 26 for its 45th anniversary and to get audiences excited about the new installment coming in August.

The Alien franchise has sunk its teeth into different genres over the years, but for "Alien: Romulus," filmmaker Fede Álvarez wanted to take it back to its roots: Horror.

"It's a return to form," Álvarez told The Associated Press. "At its core, at its heart, it's a horror thriller."

The original two films were formative for Álvarez, known for the 2013 "Evil Dead" reboot and the 2016 horror "Don't Breathe." He recalled a "primal memory" of watching them on VHS and feeling like he was watching an R-rated Star Wars.

"It was a world that felt familiar, that I thought I knew, but it was going into way more adult and scary places," he said.

Though he was a bit too young to see "Alien" in its first run, he got a peek at the new print coming to theaters and said it looks "incredible." Showings will also include a conversation between Alvarez and Scott.

The new film (opening Aug. 16) is set around the time of "Alien" and "Aliens," focusing on a group of 20-somethings, including Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson and Isabela Merced, looking to escape their dull lives in a mining colony. But of course, it comes with some complications from that terrifying creature who likes to lurk in the corners.

He enlisted a lot of the behind-the-scenes creatives and concept artists who worked on the Scott and James Cameron films to help get the look right. Sometimes, they were excited to use new technologies that weren't available in the 1970s and 80s. And other times, they realized the old school way is still the best way. Case in point: Álvarez said a big question was how they were going to...