Tag: Dana Gonzales

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EXCLUSIVE: Noah Hawley’s Earthbound ‘Alien’ Series Adds ‘Foundation’ & ‘I Am Mother’ Cinematographer Steve Annis

FX/Hulu, 20th Century Studios, and Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions have come together alongside creator/showrunner Noah Hawley (“Legion,” “Fargo”) to make a series set within the “Alien” universe. Filming has been underway in Thailand after a production pause due to last year’s strikes and we have a small tidbit to share.

The Ronin can confirm that director of photography Steve Annis (“I’m A Virgo”) is part of the show’s crew working on the Earthbound series that takes place before the events of the mainline film franchise. Annis is best known for the Apple TV+ series “Foundation,” the Netflix movie “I Am Mother,” the Nicolas Cage sci-fi horror flick “Color of Space,” and recently worked on Lionsgate’s remake of “The Crow.” We previously revealed that “Fargo” director Dana Gonzales would be helming an unknown number of episodes alongside Hawley and that production designer Andy Nicholson (“Captain Marvel,” “Gravity”) would be working on the show as well.

The “Alien” series has a cast that consists of Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Kit Young, Essie David, Samuel Blenkin, David Rysdahl, Adarsh Gourav, Babou Ceesay, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diêm Camille, Moe Bar-El, and Adrian Edmondson. One of the more recent additions has been Timothy Olyphant (“Justified”) who is said to be playing an android character. “Synthetics” in the “Alien” franchise have been both friends (Walter, Bishop, Call) and foes (Ash, David) to our human leads.

This isn’t the only “Alien” project on the horizon with Fede Alvarez’s “Alien: Romulus” being released on August 16, 2024, that will focus on a group of young human colonists on an off-world facility. Actress Cailee Spaeny confirmed that “Romulus” takes place between the events of the first two movies within the franchise timeline, suggesting a potential link to “Aliens” and the Hadley’s Hope outbreak on LV-426.

We also got some promising news about the “Predator” franchise as director Dan Trachtenberg (“Prey”) is set to return for a future-set film called “Badlands“ with a bunch of other projects in development including “Prey 2.” Hopefully, “Badlands” and “Romulus” end up planting seeds for a faithful feature/series incarnation of “Aliens vs Predator” that takes place in a futuristic off-world setting for that fray with the return of Colonial Marines. The lackluster “AVP” movies were some of the less interesting entries due to their contemporary Earthbound settings and the thinking is that 20th Century Studios may attempt to resurrect the comic book/video game crossover down the line.

Earlier this month it was revealed that the “Alien” series is aiming to debut sometime in 2025.

Posted on in News, Television News

Noah Hawley’s Earthbound ‘Alien’ Series Will See ‘Fargo’ Director Dana Gonzales Tackle Episodes

The “Alien” franchise is undergoing a bit of a stress test since the reigns have moved over to Disney post-merger and with a new feature film heading to theaters next summer it does certainly feel like the brass running 20th Century Studios actually is trying its best to reinvest into the sci-fi horror genre. We’re not only getting a new movie but FX/Hulu and Scott Free are behind an Earthbound prequel series as well that had been filming in Thailand earlier in the year. With the strikes resolved, it was recently revealed to The Wrap by the show’s creator/director Noah Hawley (“Legion,” “Fargo”) that the show is aiming for release sometime in 2025 with the production expected to ramp back up in February.

The Ronin can share a small update on the untitled “Alien” series. Executive producer Dana Gonzales had been previously linked as one of the show’s cinematographers (latest credit being “The Toxic Avenger”) and will direct an unknown amount of episodes alongside Hawley. His directing credits include “Legion,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Changeling,” and two upcoming episodes from Season 5 of “Fargo.”

We’re still waiting for more concrete plot details about the sci-fi horror series but it is expected to take place before the events of the original 1979 film and out-of-character for the franchise will mostly be set on Earth with the potential of Weyland Industries/Weyland-Yutani (the secondary villain of the franchise) being at the core of it. The cast of the “Alien” series includes Sydney Chandler (“Don’t Worry Darling”), Alex Lawther (“Andor,” “Black Mirror”), Samuel Blenkin (“Black Mirror,” “The Sandman”), Essie Davis, and Adarsh Gourav.

This is how Hawley described the show to Esquire back in 2022:

“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 … In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win?”

On the film front, director Fede Álvarez‘s “Alien: Romulus” has a tentative release date of August 16, 2024, and according to the filmmaker, his director’s cut of the pic got the seal of approval from producer Ridley Scott. There is an expectation that the movie will focus on an off-world colony inhabited by a group of young human colonists. Given that a director’s cut is already being put together we shouldn’t be that shocked if some teaser images or footage is released by 20th Century between now and CinemaCon 2024.

When exactly the new “Alien” series will drop in 2025 remains to be seen as we’ll likely get a release window closer to when the show actually completes filming.