It’s been a couple of years since we heard anything about Jeff Nichols’ planned Alien Nation remake. The Midnight Special director was brought on in 2016 to redo the 1988 sci-fi film, but in 2019 it fell victim to Disney’s acquisition of Fox. However, even at the time it was made clear that Disney wasn’t writing the project off entirely, and now Nichols says it is still very much alive, just in a different form.
Speaking on the Team Deakins podcast, Nichols says he has begun reworking his approximately $100M Alien Nation film into a miniseries that he hopes Fox/Disney will give a thumbs up…
“Yeah I’m working on a series rights now,” Nichols said, adding that he “spent three years building up an entire alien civilization and this set-up and all the characters. We were set to make it as our next big challenge, a $100 million studio film. Then Disney bought Fox and killed it, which was a little soul-crushing, to say the least.”
Continuing, “They came in and asked if I would be interested in turning it into a series, potentially. So I have taken the script and broken it into 10 episodes, and it’s under consideration right now. Who knows, the powers that be are deciding that.”
Jeff Nichols is one of the most consistent filmmakers around, and world building has been the thing that draws me to his movies. Imagining him with the kind of room the series format offers is very exciting. Here’s hoping Disney gets off their butt and makes this happen on Disney+.
