a) Becoming penpals with Jim Cameron
As it happened, because Stephen Lang who was in Fede's film Don't Breathe showed it to Jim Cameron while he was shooting Avatar 2, and he loved it. They became pen pals.
So Cameron invited Fede Alvarez to the set of Avatar 2 just to show him all the technology.
b) Contacting Cameron to ask question
Four years later, Fede was having a discussion with his coworker Rodo Sayagues about what Hudson meant by a "bug hunt" in the film Aliens when he asks ‘Is this gonna be another bug hunt?’.
He wondered if it meant that the
Colonial Marines had met some alien life before. He even observed this
pointless endless discussion online where fans were wondering if the
Marines encountered this creature before, and
wondered why did they say ‘bug hunt’ if they haven’t? And he realised that they obviously hadn’t
when one sees the way they react to the alien creatures.
But his own response to that was "I'll just ask the writer".
He sent Jim Cameron an email basically saying "Hey, I have a question about Aliens," and he was thrilled to know that Fede was doing an Alien movie, and so his response was "let's talk about it."
c) Two hour zoom session
So they did a two hour zoom call just talking over the first hour probably just about Aliens, his experience of making Aliens, and what he learned about dealing with how to make it better.
At first, Cameron was telling Fede a lot of what he wanted to hear. He had a lot of questions about him making Aliens, and all the challenges of going after Ridley's movie. Fede found it to be a beautiful conversation.
The second hour was devoted talking about their idea for Alien: Romulus. Álvarez and Sayagues didn’t have a script at that point, so it was an opportunity to bounce some ideas off Cameron.
When they were talking about the story concepts, everything Cameron said seemed like a golden nugget. Fede found that Cameron has such a scientific brain.
Cameron starting talking about planets that didn't rotate "Does it make sense of the planet would
have a dark side all the time?" and so continued "absolutely actually that's
more common. Earth is very special"
Cameron also talked about the engines of the ships, and if the engines is too big for the size of the ship or too little. They covered the spaces, the scope, the science-fiction, the technology, the weapons - it was very focused on that, which Fede loved.
d) Cameron offers thanks
Cameron thanked Fede telling him "I haven't done this in a long time, just sit down and brainstorm a horror action thriller." It was certainly a wild brainstorming of ideas in the Alien universe.
Fede thought this was hilarous and his response was something near to "You don’t have to thank us; it’s the best day ever for us!"
- Fede Alvarez: Cameron loved Don't Breathe. I think Stephen Lang showed it to him while shooting Avatar 2. So Cameron invited me to the set of Avatar 2 to just show me all the technology. Four years later I was having a discussion with my coworker Rodo (Sayagues) about what does Hudson mean by a "bug hunt" [in Aliens]. Does he mean that the Colonial Marines met some sort of alien life before? So I was like "well, I'll just ask the writer". I sent Jim an email and he was thrilled to know that I was doing Alien. He was like "let's talk about it." (Total Film #353)
- Fede Alvarez: We had a long chat. At first. he was telling me a
lot of what I wanted to hear. I had a lot of questions about him making
Aliens, and all the challenges of going after Ridley's movie. It was a
beautiful conversation. When we were talking about the story concepts,
everything Cameron says is a golden nugget. He has such a scientific
brain. I remember him saying "Does it make sense of the planet would
have a dark side all the time?" He was like. "absolutely actually that's
more common. Earth is very special" (Total Film #353)
- Fede Alvarez: But
he was also talking about the engines of the ships, and if the engines
is too big for the size of the ship or too little. It's stuff like
that. The spaces, the scope, the science-fiction, the technology, the
weapons - it was very focused on that, which I loved. He said "I haven't done this in a long time, just sit down and brainstorm a horror action thriller."
a wild brainstorming of ideas in the Alien universe. And we had the
privilege to do it with him and with Ridley. So what else would you
want? (Total Film #353)
- Fede Alvarez: In Aliens, the Colonial Marines ask, ‘Is this gonna be another bug hunt?’ There’s this whole endless discussion online wondering if the Marines encountered this creature before, and why did they say ‘bug hunt’ if they haven’t? And obviously, they haven’t when you see the way they react to the Xenomorphs. (https://www.moviemaker.com/alien-romulus-cover-story/)
- Moviemaker: Álvarez and Sayagues went to one of Aliens’ writers for the answer — and he graciously took a short break from the Avatar franchise to help.(https://www.moviemaker.com/alien-romulus-cover-story/)
- Fede Alvarez: We ended up having this amazing two-hour conversation with James Cameron. The first hour was about Aliens and his experience making it and the second hour was talking about our idea for Alien: Romulus. (https://www.moviemaker.com/alien-romulus-cover-story/)
- Moviemaker: Álvarez and Sayagues didn’t have a script at that point, so they bounced some ideas off Cameron. (https://www.moviemaker.com/alien-romulus-cover-story/)
- Fede Alvarez: The three of us were brainstorming for the film. One of the best parts of making this movie was going through that process with him. (https://www.moviemaker.com/alien-romulus-cover-story/)
- Fede Alvarez: At the end of the phone call, he thanked us for letting him brainstorm with us, which I found hilarious, I was like, 'You don’t have to thank us; it’s the best day ever for us!'" (https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/sci-fi-movies/alien-romulus-exclusive-image-james-cameron-details-interview/ published )
- Fede Alvarez: I had met Cameron a few years before, because Stephen Lang – who was in Don’t Breathe – showed that movie to Cameron. Cameron loved the movie, and he invited me to the set of Avatar 2. And we became pen pals. So then when this came about, I wrote to him like, ‘Hey, I have a question about Aliens,’ and he was like, ‘Oh, let's talk all about it.’ And we did a two hour zoom call just talking first – the first hour probably talking about Aliens, his experience of making Aliens, and what he learned about dealing with how to make it better. He was great, amazing, like he devoted so much time to us. Then he also watched the cut when it was ready, and gave his feedback on it. He's been super supportive. I’m so privileged to have someone like Cameron giving us his time, and helping us to make this movie better. (https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/ames-cameron-went-above-and-beyond-alien-romulus-best-sequel)
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