Last year, during Disney’s Investor Day presentation, it was announced that FX was currently working on an “Alien” TV series for Hulu in the United States and for Star on Disney+ internationally. This will be the first television series based on one of the greatest science fiction horror classics ever made: “Alien.”
“Alien” will be helmed by Fargo and Legion’s Noah Hawley stepping into the creator/executive producer chair. The show will be set not too far into our future and is the first Alien story set on Earth—and by blending both the timeless horror of the first “Alien” film with the non-stop action of the second, it’s going to be a
scary thrill ride that will blow people back in their seats.
We haven’t heard much news on the project since then, however, Noah Hawley recently gave an interview with Vanity Fair in which the director provided some new details about the series. During the interview, Hawley provided an update on the script and storyline saying the series will not be another story about Sigourney Weaver‘s Ellen Ripley who was featured in the Alien franchise films.
You can read some excerpts of what Hawley said in the interview below:
“I’ve written a couple of scripts, the first two scripts, and we’re looking to make them next spring. When you get to something with this level of visual effects, there’s a lot of preparation that has to go into it. What’s been really illuminating is to see that the entire film industry had to take a year off and they are now trying to jam two years of production into one year. So it’s very hard to look on the planet earth and see where you might make something in the next six months. Everyone is racing to make up for lost time. So, I figure let that bubble burst a little bit and we’ll do it right.”
“It’s not a Ripley story. She’s one of the great characters of all time, and I think the story has been told pretty perfectly, and I don’t want to mess with it. It’s a story that’s set on Earth also. The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a spaceship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of “What happens if you can’t contain it?” are more immediate.
“On some level it’s also a story about inequality. You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how ’70s a movie it is, and how it’s really this blue collar space-trucker world in which Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are basically Waiting for Godot. They’re like Samuel Beckett characters, ordered to go to a place by a faceless nameless corporation. The second movie is such an ‘80s movie, but it’s still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work.
..You’re also going to see the people who are sending them. So you will see what happens when the inequality we’re struggling with now isn’t resolved. If we as a society can’t figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what’s going to happen to us? There’s that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser where she says, “I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t fuck each other over for a percentage.”
The “Alien” series is expected to start filming next year. A premiere date has not been announced yet.