Filming on Noah Hawley’s FX “Alien” series has been suspended in Thailand due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
Deadline reports that the cast was sent home on Friday. According to the outlet’s sources, the break was planned as the show’s production schedule was adjusted to account for the SAG-AFTRA work stoppage. Crew members are still working, and sets are still being prepared for when shooting resumes after the end of the strike. All scripts for the series were completed prior to the start of the writers strike in May.
Production on the Alien series continued for more than a month after the actors strike began because some of the cast members were affiliated with the British Union Equity. Per Deadline, they had been told they were at risk of being sued for breach of contract if they walked off the set in solitary with their American colleagues. Sydney Chandler, a member of the American SAG-AFTRA, has not been involved in filming.
Sydney Chandler (Pistol) has been confirmed as one of the leading actors. Additional cast members include Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries) as Dame Silvia and Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger) as Slightly, Alex Lawther (The End of the F*cking World) will play the male lead, a soldier named CJ and Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror) as Slightly.
Additionally, Kit Young (Shadow and Bone) has been cast as a character named Tootles.
The series will be the first Alien story set on Earth and will blend the horror of the original 1979 movie and the action of the 1986 James Cameron-directed sequel, Aliens. The “Alien” series will take place before Weaver’s Ripley character appears, and she will not be part of the show, as will none of the characters apart from the alien itself.
The project was first announced during Disney’s Investor Day presentation in 2020. It will be the first television series based on one of the greatest science fiction horror classics ever made: “Alien.”
Disney is also working on a new “Alien” film starring Cailee Spaeny (“Mare of Easttown”), which started production in Budapest on March 9. In this ninth entry in the immensely popular and enduring film series, a group of young people on a distant world find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
The series will stream on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ internationally under the Star banner.
A release date has not been announced yet.
Source: Deadline