Well that didn’t take long! The Alien social channels have just made it official: An Alien FX series helmed by Noah Hawley is in active development! The series will be featured on the Hulu streaming platform. This announcement was initially made on a Disney investor livestream presentation today by FX chairman John Landgraf.
Landgraf described the series as combining elements from Alien and Aliens, having “both the timeless horror of the first Alien film with the non-stop action of the second.”
Writer and Producer Noah Hawley, who recently hinted at his ongoing involvement in this series development, will be helming the series, and Ridley Scott is in advanced talks to Executive Produce.
Hawley is best known for his work on the shows Fargo and Legion, and has been working to get an Alien series launched for quite some time. In early 2019 reports surfaced on how his series pitch was shelved as the executives at then-20th Century Fox wanted to keep Alien a theatrical series. It seems as though things have changed with the new ownership!
The social media posts gave us some small details as to what we can expect for the premise:
“Alien is currently in development at FX Networks The first TV series based on the classic film series is helmed by Fargo and Legion’s Noah Hawley. Expect a scary thrill ride set not too far in the future here on Earth.”
This is something we teased recently on the social channels, and we’ve known about this series being back in active development for a few months now, though I must admit I was not expecting this announcement so soon!
Thanks to Mikey for bringing the announcement to my attention! And thanks to Variety for the investor call details.
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UPDATE
Some promotional imagery for the series shown during the investor presentation has surfaced online, and you can watch the whole thing down below too (at 8 minutes in):
Either way, I've never thought he was especially powerful in the grand scheme of company things.
"Paul Reiser is middle management at best."
Being Special Projects Director would seem higher than just being middle management.
Well shit. Actual details.
Nice to hear Alien 3 and Fincher actually getting a shout out by Hawley. Still not thrilled about the idea to set it on Earth but I intend to go in as open-minded as possible, and the core premise definitely strikes a chord within this franchise.
Humanity caught between a primordial past and an AI future is also an interesting bit of phrasing.
I can see this being a November/December release.
Fresh info. Sounding promising in my opinion.
Spoiler
Same costume designer that did Ripley 8's costume as well, I believe.
https://www.avpgalaxy.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/260215_02a.png
And Logan doesn't seem to be involved with Ridley's future Alien work...
so what are the chances of Ridley delivering something as bad as Prometheus...
And Luke Scott doesn't exactly inspire trust..
Prometheus' script is a damn mess, but I actually find Covenant's to be quite strong (barring the third act mini Alien remake on the ship), and both benefit further from Ridley's vision behind the camera.
I think I'd probably be cool with a Blomkamp Alien film, and I find his career and his stylistic tendencies in general to be quite interesting (I really like both District 9 and Chappie, and Elysium is interesting in its theme and visuals despite its rampant structural and narrative issues). I just don't think I would have liked the particular Alien film he was looking to make.
I still maintain that him losing out on doing a Robocop sequel is a much bigger loss than him not doing an Aliens sequel.
I tend to have this opinion also.
Given the trajectory of his career thus far, I don't think Blomkamp really has any intention of directing anything that he isn't at minimum co-writing. He's gone on record in interviews in the past stating that being on set is his least favorite part of the filmmaking process, as it is where he feels the most constrained by schedule and other sources beyond his control, whereas writing and editing are the stages in development where he's much more creatively free and at home with what he's doing. Seems to him that the on set directing process is just kind of the obligatory stage in the middle of that.
Given his mentality there, I don't think that directing someone else's material where he had no hand in the script is something he'd ever really do.
Blomkamp's an excellent director for an Alien movie, I just don't really want him anywhere near writing it.
He also directed the Ridley Scott-produced Halo: Nightfall... but that was really bad and it is best to pretend that that one just doesn't exist.
Out of the question!
That sounds like a smart direction for this IP. I wonder if such a cool director can be found on any of these lists, or if we're going to have to wait a bit longer.
▶IMDb ~ Top 20 Rising Directors
▶IMDb ~ Top 50 Upcoming Directors
▶Top 50 Variety Names 10 Directors to Watch for 2021
Edit ~ Blomkamp is in the second list.
I love love love you just, wanted an excuse to say it.
Fresh director, preferably fairly new on the scene like Scott, Cameron, Fincher were at the time etc. Fresh locations, new characters. The only memberberries should be a general well-used look and Gigers creature designs.
I'm surprised the show is seemingly right up Scott's street though. Hope we'll get official info about the show soon.
He needs to like it though. But even present-day Scott likes good screenplays. Someone needs to tell him which is which though.
It already worked in Blade Runner 2049's case (I'm pretty sure Scott was more than just "consulted" here).
But you will never get Cameron back because I think he personally finds the Alienverse too limiting. I believe it was the scriptment of Avatar where he basically trashed the Alien as being non threatening. Something about one of his monsters fitting in one of his avatar's creatures mouth or something. It was written as being derogatory to the Alien.
Fincher is also done with the franchise because of his experience with Alien 3. So Scott IS most likely the only one giving new input, its just a shame because he's a crazy old man.
At this point I'd rather them develop something without his name attached in the universe than have him involved again.
Prometheus screenplay is mediocre AT BEST, in parts it almost reads like fan fiction, which is astonishing given the size of the project. And yet Ridley has skin in the blame game here since he greenlighted it and decided to make a film based upon it (same with Covenant).
Covenant's screenplay is more or less uninspired and therefore uninteresting to me (it has it's fans though; in before NA, TQ etc) but is undoubtly competently written in terms of basic narrative stuff. Could another director have made more of it? Maybe but I don't actually see that much room for improvement here. I guess there always is though.
In essence: Take any great Scott film and imo you'll find a great screenplay constituting the base for it's quality.
But again there are other problems too, you've already mentioned some. I think during filming Scott gets these little ideas that can be great but can also fukk the grander narrative up in a way that could end up damaging the final product significantly. In these cases Scott would indeed need someone who tells him to fukk off but obviously that has over the time become harder and harder with Ridley (rightfully tho) building up his reputation even expanding his control over the writing process. Over super early stadiums even I suppose, where you can easily fukk things up in a way that makes it impossible to repair them later in the process (like in Prometheus's case where Scott kinda randomly threw his "ideas" at Lindelof who maybe even made the best of it, who knows).
Aside from David, Scott hasn't given the franchise anything worth talking about since 1979.
I suspect he grows bored having to stay with any one franchise for too long, or doesn't like playing in others established universes (yes he started it and has spent the most time in it but other directors have been involved as well its not only his), and thus he always is looking to radicalize anything to do with the Alienverse to make it more interesting to him.
I personally cannot stand Prometheus, and despite its strong sales figures, going by the law of diminishing returns with Covenant, I don't think many other people cared for the arc either.
His involvement in the franchise is overrated. At this point I'd rather have Cameron's input. Or even Fincher's. Scott is too unfocused with no clear idea on where he wants to go and everybody hanging on to every word he says like he is going to turn around the franchise boggles the mind when he had two more attempts to do it than anyone else .......AND STILL FAILED.
He is not an overrated director, but as a statesman of the series, his input is overrated.
Oh, I know, I was just using the promo material in conjunction with your statement/knowledge about the project to fulfill my own specific set of wishes internally.
My apologies, I didn't mean in terms of what we've seen of the promo stuff.
"Russell Crowe? Actually I wanted a female lead.."
"Streitenwho is scoring my series?"
"Luke Scott? He your son?"
Or maybe Mr. Hawley is audacious like Kimarhi?
He tried.
https://youtu.be/COQ3ho-b8oY?t=161
https://25yearslatersite.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Raised-by-Wolves-S1E2-Campion-marvels-at-the-Ark-overhead.jpg
You think he needs help with the arc?*
*truly sorry
Though I do remain a firm supporter of the pathogen and Covenant!
I get so tired of the retreads of the first two movies, drawing from the first two films tropes, using the same factions, revisiting the same locations, answering questions nobody gave a damn about as a main selling point.
But they are so familiar to the franchise you can't just abandon them either.
That balance is tough. I'd expand on known factions and locations and introduce others that make sense within the narrative. But PLZ no more Hadley's Hope or Acheron stories, for the love of god.
I also don't like taking the franchise in some crazy ass direction. As much as White showed the positive potential of the black goo, I still think that is going to be the most Marvel esque bullshit the franchise will ever be involved in and now it is in the series bones and will never leave without a total reboot. NEED A SUPERVILLIAN FOR YOUR COMICS-BLACK GOO, NEED TO MAKE THE ALIEN EVEN DEADLIER-BLACK GOO, NEED TO MAKE A HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENT-BLACK GOO. Its that kind of shit that I totally wish was never introduced into the plot and its that kind of stuff that will not go away after it is introduced. The BLACK GOO is more dangerous than the Aliens are. I'm also totally against the engineer retcons. 15' tall biomechanical pilot species becomes a 10 tall blue bald dude who is seemingly just a wizened human. I don't even know why it aggravates the f**k out of me it just does.
The writers/producers have to find the balance of moving forward from what is known, and not just haphazardly throwing a stick of new idea dynamite at the story for the lulz.
If Film did well, on it quickly goes-Film did bad, well at least the story arc will be unresolved; staking out it's vision that even if sidelined, eventually will have to be addressed
If they sideline the prequel arc and focus on something else or do something in mixing up the canon ie. That Bloomkamp idea- David and his antics aboard the Covenant will cast an unresolved shadow over moving things forward, hopefully the tv series interweaves and counterpoints the prequels at the very least rather than ignores.
Wouldn't want new creative ideas to be inhibited but can understand if Ridley has a vision he wants to protect and finish