One of the projects that was being developed at Fox before Disney bought them was a remake of the classic 1988 sci-fi thriller Alien Nation. Director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special) was developing the film, but it looks like Disney isn’t too keen on moving forward with it. According to Variety, the Mouse House has “hit the pause button” on the project.
You know what? I’m totally fine with Alien Nation not being remade. It’s one less remake that the world needs. The original movie starred James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, and Terence Stamp. The story is set in Los Angeles in 1991, “humans live alongside extraterrestrial humanoid beings whose spaceship crash landed three years earlier. This coexistence is not always harmonious, as exemplified by segregated slums and the uneasy partnership of police detective Matthew Sykes (Caan) with new humanoid partner Sam Francisco (Patinkin). However, the pair begin to overcome their differences as they investigate a slum drug ring led by the slippery William Harcourt (Stamp).”
Nichols was super passionate about the project, and when previously talking about the plan for the film, he explained:
“So I’ve been working on Alien Nation like for two years, the screenplay. And I’m still … I’m almost done with it. I’m hoping this draft that I’m working on now will be my last. The studio seems to really love it, and we’re working on conception design of the aliens and everything else, and it happens to be a studio that’s being bought by Disney right now. I’m working with Fox on it, so it feels a little bit like you’re one of those monks doing those giant murals in sand. It might just blow away, which would be a real shame, but everybody at Fox has been so good to me about it. And they’re so positive about it, obviously I’m trying to stay in the positive zone, and hopefully knock out this last draft.
“It’s epic. I mean, it’s the biggest canvas I’ve ever painted on, but it 100 percent feels like a Jeff Nichols film, which I’m sure there are gonna be some Alien Nation fans out there that are like, “What the fuck?” But my hope is if they … If people come to it just ready for a new story, that they’ll like it. And I put my heart and soul into it. To be the project that’s supposed to be me being a sell out, it is like the least … I’m not saying that to save face or be cool. I put so much of myself into it, it takes place in Arkansas. There’s so much of me in it.
“When you’re making something that big, there’s just so many things that are out of your control. In a weird way, all you can control and concentrate on is the creative aspect. The winds will blow you where they blow you, but as long as you’re telling to where you want to tell, and whenever that stops, then you gotta raise your hand and go, “Guys, this isn’t gonna work for me anymore.”
“But so far, that’s not been the case. So hopefully Alien Nation goes, I’ve got a couple of things that I won’t say are more serious films, because Alien Nation is actually pretty serious, but there’s a lot more traditional kind of adult movies. I’ve got a couple of those but I haven’t settled on one, and then I’ve got a really another big PG, PG-13 kind of like summer blockbuster family film, which makes it sound real lame, but it’s not. It’s more like Mud, but with some bigger fantastical elements in it.”
On one hand I feel bad that Nichols, who is a great director, won’t get to make his Alien Nation movie. On the other hand, I’m kind of happy it might not be remade. But, who knows, maybe Disney will end up changing their mind, unpause, and move forward with it.