ALIEN Series Creator Noah Hawley Reveals the Key Moment in the Franchise That Inspired His Show
For the past few years, the creator of the Fargo series, Noah Hawley, has been developing a series based on the Alien sci-fi film franchise. But, this series is going to be much different than anything we’ve seen before in the movie.
The story for the series “takes place before Ripley. It’s the first story that takes place in the Alien franchise on Earth.” It’s also been revealed that it will be set near “the end of this century we’re in — so 70-odd years from now.” It will also be the first Alien story set on Earth.
The project is also said to blend “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.“
Hawley recently appeared on a panel at the Austin Film Festival and shared some additional insight on this series he’s making and he also reveals the key moment in the franchise that inspired his story. When talking about telling an Alien story as a series, he said:
"Look, a two-hour movie, you can set it up and then it's just about, 'Are they going to survive?' But if you're making a series, 'Are they going to survive?', you can't sustain it. Even if you have 60% of the best action-horror on television, you still have 40% of 'What are we talking about?' I had some conversations early on with Peter Rice, who used to run all of television at Fox and then the first couple of years at Disney, where it was like, 'The thing with Alien is, it's always trapped in a spaceship, trapped in a prison. What if it wasn't that?'"
He went on to talk about bringing the xenomorphs to Earth, saying: "What is this moment on Earth, technology-wise? And where are we? And the question science-fiction always tends to ask is, does humanity deserve to survive? So that seems like a really interesting question to continue to explore."
The series will also explore AI in the universe, which has always been prominent in the Alien franchise with the advanced androids. Hawley reveals that is was actually the android Ash (Ian Holm) from the original film that inspired the series. He explained that the moment when it’s revealed that Ash is an android is the key moment that inspired his Alien series. Hawley then talked about the structure of the series, saying:
"And then it always mimics the life cycle of the creature, right? Which is egg, slow, Facehugger, starts to get faster – you know what I mean? And of course, that's great for a horror movie to build that way. So I found a way to kind of innovate around that structure and play with it.”
Hawley previously talked about the series, saying, “It's about how we're trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both [are] trying to kill us. It's set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla. Someone's going to monopolize electricity. We just don't know which one it is."
He went on to share, “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.”
I’m excited about this show! Hawley has proven time and time a gain that he’s a great storyteller, and I’m very curious to see how exactly he handles the Alien franchise.
Via: /Film