(Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Alien: Romulus.)
For science fiction fans of a certain age, it was the surprise of the summer.
This would be the return of Ian Holm as a “synthetic” android in Alien: Romulusa secret that was not revealed from the film’s marketing and even from the panel at San Diego Comic-Con. Since Holm died in 2020 at the age of 88, it was also a major undertaking, requiring permission from the late actor’s estate and a combination of animatronics, CGI and AI to complete the illusion.
The result is the most ambitious attempt to date to resurrect a deceased actor for film. The last significant attempt – and by most accounts the first – took place in 2016. Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyin which the CGI-recreated face of Peter Cushing, who died in 1994, can be seen reprising his role as Grand Moff Tarkin from the original 1977 film star Wars.
Reactions to this cameo were negative, with many feeling that the technology failed to fool the audience into thinking they were watching a real human being.
A year earlier, a similar technology was used to complete Paul Walker’s work in Furious 7because the actor died in a car accident before filming was completed. The sentimentality over the loss of Walker helped audiences accept the computer-generated trick.
But the jury is not yet in agreement Alien: Romulus‘ own attempt to bring the dead back to life. Some criticized the ethics involved and called the move cynical and crass. slate compared Disney-owned 20th Century Studios to the evil Weyland-Yutani corporation from the series, calling it “a massive conglomerate that puts profit above respect for human life.”
SEyelashFilm found the effort aesthetically a failure: “It’s distracting and weird. It never, ever looks real. … The simple truth is that it not only looks bad, it’s a bad idea all around.”
What is undeniable, however, is the scale and ambition of the project. The role is substantial, she appears in several scenes and delivers significant dialogue that has a major impact on the plot right up to the shocking fourth act.
In terms of a cinematic advancement, it’s a real stunner: he was one of the most iconic AI characters ever portrayed on film, and was created when AI didn’t exist. The human who played him no longer exists, but the AI needed to recreate him still exists.
This symbiotic idea comes from Romulus Screenwriter and director Fede Álvarez. While researching the franchise’s mythology, Álvarez found that there were only a limited number of synthetic models. (Michael Fassbender played two identical models in 2017’s Alien: CovenantFor example.)
Conversations with producer Ridley Scott (who directed the original in 1979) Foreigner, Federal and 2012 Prometheus) led to the realization that the series’ first synthetic character (though they prefer to be called “artificial persons” or APs), Holm’s Ash, was the most intriguing and worthy of revival.
“Ridley was the one who said, ‘Ash was always the best. He has to make a comeback,'” Álvarez said recently The Hollywood Reporter.
The result is Rook – a doppelganger of Ash, who was destroyed in the original film, and a predecessor to the chess-piece-like Bishop played by Lance Henriksen in 1986. Aliens. (Romulus is between the action of Foreigner And Aliens.)
Unlike Ash, who is portrayed as a villain in the original film, or Bishop, who comes across as an ally, Rook was designed as a morally ambivalent figure – a character whose programmed intentions, however good they may be, may not have the best outcomes for humanity. In this respect, he is a perfect metaphor for the debates currently swirling around the introduction of artificial intelligence.
“He rarely lies to anyone, doesn’t make plans or try to get someone to do something they don’t want to do,” Álvarez explained. “He’s actually pretty direct, but that’s the line that was fun: ‘Is he going to be more like Ash or more like Bishop?'”
As intended by Álvarez, Rook works in the service of Weyland-Yutani – but instead of using his programming to weaponize the deadly Xenomorphs, he sees their DNA as a way to perfect humanity, using a liquid he calls “Prometheus Fire.” The consequences are somewhat catastrophic.
First, Holm’s estate had to give permission to recreate his likeness for the film. “We did it with the permission of the family: his widow and all his children. We wanted to make sure that everyone was on board with the idea of recreating his likeness,” said the director.
In conversation with Weekly entertainmentÁlvarez revealed a little more about the backstory. Holm’s wife, the London-based artist Sophie de Stempel, “feels that Ian was given the cold shoulder by Hollywood in the last years of his life and that he would have liked to have been involved in more projects after that. The Hobbitbut he wasn’t. So she was excited about the idea of having him back.” A compensation agreement was reached and the estate agreed to allow his image to be used in the film.
It was The Hobbitin fact, this was made possible by Rook, as Weta FX, the New Zealand-based company, had a Holm head print lying around that Lord of the rings(Holm played Bilbo Baggins in several of Peter Jackson’s fantasy epics based on the books of JRR Tolkien.) “That was Ian Holm’s only existing headcast role,” Álvarez said.
A fully animatronic version of Holm – bifurcated and leaking milky fluid after an unpleasant encounter with a Xenomorph – was built by Legacy Effects, the same special effects company that The Mandalorian‘s Grogu. That was added after the fact with CG enhancements to animate the nose, eyes and mouth, courtesy of Metaphysic, the company behind the viral Tom Cruise deepfakes. “It’s a whole bunch of tricks from 1970s and 1980s technology to yesterday’s technology,” Álvarez said.
To recreate Holm’s voice and intonation, actor Daniel Betts spoke the dialogue, and the recording was run through software called Speecher, which modified Betts’ voice based on Ash’s dialogue from the original. Foreigner.
De Stempel first saw her resurrected husband in June, when Álvarez sent her some of the Holmes footage. He then called her to gauge her reaction. “It was a very, very emotional phone call,” he said. EW“They lost him not too long ago, and I lost my father around the same time, so I could relate to their pain, but also their joy at seeing him again in the film.”
Holm’s family saw the final product at the film’s premiere in London on August 14 and says The Hollywood Reporter in a statement: “We loved being there and are excited that (Fox) is bringing both Foreigner and pass it on to another generation.”
