This crew is anything but expendable.
The New Jersey high schoolers who staged a theatrical adaptation of the classic sci-fi film “Alien” are getting kudos from the film’s director and star.
North Bergen High School debuted “Alien: The Play” — an adaptation of the 1979 “In space no one can hear you scream” flick in which an “expendable” space-salvage crew is sent on a suicide mission to unwittingly smuggle an interstellar monster back to earth — on March 19, and the production has proved more infectious than one of the film’s chest-bursting aliens.
“My hat comes off to all of you for all your creativity, imagination and determination to produce such an ambitious show,” film director Ridley Scott wrote to the school, while also offering “some financial help to fund an encore performance” from his Scott Free production company, according to Deadline Hollywood.
To recreate the H.R. Geiger-inspired monsters and the Nostromo spaceship where most of the action is set, school art teacher Steven Defendini and the stage crew relied on recycled materials and a shoe-string budget — but you wouldn’t know it by the looks, according to Scott, who said watching a roughly 3-minute trailer was enough to blow him away.
“Limitations often produce the best results, because imagination and determination can surpass any shortfalls and determine the way forward — ALWAYS,” Scott wrote.
Meanwhile, the film’s star Sigourney Weaver sent the kids a video message egging them on.
“I saw a bit of your production of ‘Alien.’ I just want to say it looked incredible. You put so much heart and soul into that and the alien, I must say, looked very real to me,” said Weaver, who would know having battled the beast as Lt. Ellen Ripley in four of the franchise’s films.
She also sent compliments from James Cameron, who directed the sequel “Aliens” as well as the original screenwriter, Walter Hill.
“We all say, ‘Bravo — well done,’” she said.
“The North Bergen Drama Club is deeply honored and completely blown away to have @RealSigourney acknowledge our hard work and effort in producing “Alien: The Play”. The kids can’t stop screaming! Thanks to Mr. Cameron and Mr. Hill as well!” tweeted school drama teacher Perfecto Cuervo.