Jeff Nichols to Write and Direct Remake of Sci-Fi Film ALIEN NATION

Despite a love of '80s movies, sci-fi films, and neo-noir, I've somehow gone my entire life without ever seeing Alien Nation, an awesome-looking film that combines all of those elements and stars James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, and Terence Stamp. Check out the original trailer here:

Out on DVD and Blu-Ray at: www.umbrellaent.com.au A gritty sci-fi, crime procedural in the vein of The Hidden and District 9, Alien Nation is a tense tale of urban life in Los Angeles circa 1991. Here extraterrestrial humanoid beings co-exist with humans in their day-to-day life, due to their spaceship crash landing some three years earlier.

Looks pretty rad. I just added it to my Netflix queue.

The reason I bring this up at all is because Deadline reports that Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special) is negotiating to write and direct a remake of Alien Nation for 20th Century Fox. Since actor Michael Shannon has become a go-to collaborator of Nichols', it seems like a good guess that he'd be involved as one of the leads here. The cool part is, based on the trailer above, I could easily see Shannon playing any of the three leading roles in this remake.

Have you seen the original movie? It seems like perfect remake material to me.