Sir Ridley Scott and Sigourney Weaver have praised students at North Bergen High School in New Jersey for putting on ‘Alien: The Play’.
The teenagers created a social media storm when clips from their stage production of the acclaimed 1979 sci-fi horror film were posted onto Twitter by the play’s director, English teacher Perfecto Cuervo, with the videos quickly going viral.
The astonishing effort was noticed by ‘Alien’ director Scott and the 81-year-old British filmmaker sent a letter to the drama department commending everybody’s efforts.
Scott wrote: "My hat comes off to all of you for all your creativity, imagination and determination to produce such an ambitious show. Thanks for doing Alien, I felt very complimented."
Sigourney – who portrayed heroine Ripley in the cinematic classic and three sequels – also saw the footage of the play and posted a video on the official ‘Alien’ Twitter account in which she congratulated all the students on their achievement and passed on a message of praise from James Cameron, who directed the first sequel ‘Aliens’.
In the video, the 69-year-old actress said: "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.
"I just want to send our compliments, not only from me, but from James Cameron and the original screenwriter, Walter Hill. We all say bravo, well done. And just one more thing – you know, the alien might still be around. So when you’re opening your locker, just do it very slowly."
The school’s play stayed close to the plot of the original movie which tells the story of the crew on the commercial starship Nostromo who, after answering a distress call, unwittingly bring a dangerous extra-terrestrial lifeform on board.
They then must find a way to survive as the deadly Xenomorph begins hunting them one-by-one.
Ridley Scott and Sigourney Weaver praise high school Alien play
