Jeff Nichols' Offers an Update on His ALIEN NATION Remake
Back in 2016, The Bikeriders director Jeff Nichols was set to write and direct a remake of the classic 1988 film Alien Nation, which is a project now set up at Disney.
The project started out as a film, then it was repurposed as a ten-episode series. Now in a recent update from the filmmaker, we’ve learned that the series has been turned back into a film!
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 asked about the project during a recent interview with /Film and he said: "That is still on. I finished the latest rewrite of that — which I'm really, really proud of — a couple months back, turned it into them, and we are in serious talks.
“We'll see. It's a very expensive film, and anytime you make a film at that level, you kind of have to deliver it up to the studio gods.
“We'll see what happens. But it takes place in Arkansas. It says everything I want to say about humanity and the universe, and the way things work. I'd be very, very happy if I got to make that film."
Nichols went on to explain how the project evolved in the years since Disney picked up the project from Fox, saying: "The way that the Alien Nation thing came about is they called and were like, 'Hey, do you want to remake this?'
“I was like, 'Look, I'm a fan of the original film, but no, I don't believe in remakes.' Like, why? I said, 'But I have this original idea. Would you all like to hear it?' And they really liked that idea, and they were like, 'Can we put that title on there?' 'Sure, I don't care. Give me a hundred million dollars, you can put any title you want on it.’
“And then of course, the Fox/Disney merger happened, and Disney didn't want to move forward with it, and we were able to get it over to Paramount without that title. So it is really this one project that I've just been working on for years and years and years, and I still really love it."
When preiovusly talking about his visdion for the film Nichols said: “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 f-ck?’ 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.”
I’m curious about this movie and I hope that Nichols gets to make it one day. I’d like to see what he’s come up with for the story.