FX Officially Announces New ALIEN Series with Noah Hawley Developing It
Over the past few months Legion creator Noah Hawley has been talking about an Alien TV series that he has been working on. We kept hearing that his pitch had been rejected, but it looks like FX actually ended up picking it up and they are rolling forward with it!
The big announcement came from FX chief John Landgraf as part of the Disney Investor Day presentation. Hawley is set to write, direct, and executive produce the series with original Alien director Ridley Scott in talks to executive produce.
According to Landgraf, “Set not too far into our future, it’s the first ‘Alien’ story set on Earth.” He goes on to say:
“FX is moving quickly to bring audiences 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, and FX is in advanced negotiations with Academy Award winner, Sir Ridley Scott—director of the first ‘Alien’ film and the sequel, ‘Alien: Covenant’—to join the project as an Executive Producer. Set not too far into our future, it’s 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.”
Hawley previously discussed his idea for this rejected Alien TV series, saying:
“Alien is on some level the complete opposite of Star Trek. It’s sort of about humanity at its worst. There’s this moment in the second film when Sigourney says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t screw each other over for a percentage.’ If you look at what Aliens tends to be, it’s usually a trapped story – trapped in a ship, trapped in a prison, etc. And because the Alien has this life cycle to it, where it goes from egg, to chestburster, to xenomorph, there becomes a certain routine to it.
“I thought it would be interesting if you could expand. If you’re going to make something for television, you’ve got 10 hours let’s say. Even if you have a lot of action, like two hours, then you’re still going to have eight hours left. So what is the show about? That’s what I tried to talk to them about. As I did with Legion, the exercise is: Let’s take the superhero stuff out of the show and see if it’s still a great show. What’s the show about? Let’s take the Alien out of the show. What’s the show about? What are the themes, who are the characters and what is the human drama? Then we drop the Aliens back in and we go, ‘This is great. Not only is there great human drama, but there’s Aliens!’”
I do like that Hawley is expanding the Alien franchise and is playing around in a different kind of setting. Hawley is a proven talented storyteller, and I for one am excited to see what he ends up doing with this show!