Last December, it was made official by Disney that Noah Hawley (Legion, Fargo) would be making an Earthbound series set within the Alien franchise for FX On Hulu with Ridley Scott taking a producing role (Scott being the gatekeeper of the Alien franchise via Scott Free).
While speaking with The Independent, Ridley Scott gives the impression he might be more hands-off than we previously expected and proceeded to theorize the show will “never” be as good as his original 1979 film, which comes off as more of a dig towards Hawley than trying to motivate the successful creator of FX’s Legion and Fargo to outshine Alien.
“Wherever [the series goes], whatever they do, ‘It’ll never be as good as the first one,’ [Scott grins] ‘That’s what I’ll say.’”
These somewhat passive-aggressive comments aren’t terribly shocking given that Ridley Scott seems to big his own biggest cheerleader and believing he alone knows what is best for the Alien franchise. Then again, Alien: Covenant ended up one of the biggest misfires in the franchise and due to it’s weak audience response, the cliffhanger ending never paid off similar to Prometheus.
When Neill Blomkamp got candid about Alien 5 over the summer, the director cited Ridley Scott as the reason his movie never went into production and how he basically intervened with the studio to have him thrown off Alien 5, potentially because of Chappie.
“At the end of the day even though Ridley Scott is producing it, he brought that to the world, so if he changes his mind or if there is a director on it he doesn’t want, whatever it may be, it’s his. I understand that, it makes logical sense to me.”
“It’s possible that Ridley watched Chappie and he was like, this guy can’t do Alien so let’s just go ahead and move on.”
Scott already taking minor shots on the series in the press isn’t all that surprising, hopefully, he won’t throw his weight around for a second time to get another Alien project killed/blocked.
The director has The Last Duel and House of Gucci hitting theaters alongside period dramas Kitbag and a sequel to Gladiator on the horizon to go behind cameras in the near future. While he’s teased talks with 20th Century Studios about a third Alien prequel, that hasn’t been made official or greenlit.
FX boss John Landgraf previously indicated back in August that the show could be ready for 2023 (possible 2022 shoot) and will feel like it is part of the cinematic universe.
“I think you’ll also see that the show will feel like a part of the cinematic universe you’re familiar with in terms of Alien. I have optimism that that show may well roll out in 2023. It will probably roll out 2023, but we want to get it right.”
Noah Hawley is also busy lining up an untitled heist thriller at Netflix starring Rege-Jean Page and will be produced by The Russo Brothers.
Granted, Alien is an amazing movie, but it comes off as reductive and childish for Scott to dismiss the potential of the series before it’s even started filming.
Friday marked the 25th anniversary of German director Roland Emmerich‘s alien invasion film “Independence Day,” but it wasn’t the only big sci-fi spectacle he had been working on for 20th Century Fox.
In the wake of David Fincher‘s “Alien 3,” it felt like 20th Century Fox was over the “Alien” franchise, and Sigourney Weaver leading it. Ellen Ripley had killed herself at the end of the film making subsequent sequels seemingly moot after their lead character’s death and flopping at the box office. Thinking they were done with the Ripley saga, between “Alien 3” and “Alien Resurrection” the studio tried to develop an early incarnation of an “Alien vs. Predator” movie years before the Paul W.S. Anderson version.
A rumor appeared in 1992 (same year that “Universal Soldier” is released) that Emmerich was going to direct an “AVP” film based on the popular Dark Horse Comics run, this wasn’t hard to imagine because 1990’s “Predator 2” had given audiences a nod to the comic book crossover as they added a xenomorph skull on a wall of trophies in the predator ship at the end of the film. In 1994, “Stargate” is released and that success leads to another original humans vs. aliens project with the 1996 box office juggernaut “Independence Day,” Toho and TriStar Pictures feel confident enough to allow Roland Emmerich to direct a modern “Godzilla” reboot using CGI special effects.
In 1996, “Alien Resurrection” begins shooting in Los Angeles with French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet overseeing the sequel and Ellen Ripley is brought back via the wonders of cloning (originally going to be a clone of Newt), thanks “Jurassic Park.” The film ends with the survivors landing in Paris and leaves the door open for a fifth installment.
In the November 1997 issue of Starlog Magazine, screenwriter Dean Devlin (“Stargate,” “Independence Day,” “Godzilla“) was interviewed about his Fox Television series “The Visitor” and asked about the status with “Alien vs. Predator” he replied, “For the time being, it’s dead. We wanted to do it if they had not just decided to do ‘Alien Resurrection,’ and now we’re all just waiting around to see how that film does. If it really works, the studio is going to want to continue the franchise with just the alien. If that were to happen, then we won’t be involved at all.”
This interview taking place before “Alien Resurrection”s late November release and while the sequel made slightly more than “Alien 3,” it still didn’t meet studio expectations. The following year, Roland and Dean released their critical disaster “Godzilla,” which was ridiculed and likely could have been a reason why 20th Century Fox ultimately didn’t want them handling a crossover to their two lucrative sci-fi franchises.
Speaking of “Predator 2,” Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally going to return as Dutch in the sequel before the role was reworked as Peter Keyes for actor Gary Busey and there has been a longstanding rumor that Arnold was going to star in this “AVP” movie, there might be something behind that.
In 1991, before Emmerich’s “Universal Soldier” starring Jean-Claude Van Damme was released in 1992, Schwarzenegger visited the film’s set, and we have a bunch of photos that documented that visit. There is a possibility that Arnold was there to get a read on Roland Emmerich and speak to Jean-Claude Van Damme about his experience working with him.
JCVD’s star was rising in the 1990s and had played the first incarnation of the alien hunter in “Predator” before leaving during Stan Winston‘s redesign of the creature (with some help from James Cameron) to lead his action film “Bloodsport” instead of being hidden behind a predator costume.
Producers had been trying to lure him back to the “Predator” franchise every chance they got and a crossover with a huge budget along with the right director could be attractive enough for Arnold to get involved. A reminder, the studio was looking to move past Weaver since Ripley was dead and Schwarzenegger was hot as a pistol at the box office, Dutch was theoretically still alive and every “Predator” sequel since there have been attempts to have him appear.
“Something similar to what we did with Aliens. A bunch of great characters, and of course Sigourney [Weaver]. I’ve even discussed the possibility of putting him [Arnold Schwarzenegger] into the Alien movie,” Cameron told the BBC in 2003 about the possibility of adding Schwarzenegger to his “Alien 5.”
Paul W.S. Anderson begins shooting “Alien vs. Predator” in Prague at the end of 2003 and essentially kills “Alien 5,” finally ending the Ellen Ripley saga for good.
James Cameron pivots to “Avatar” and the film still holds the global box office record thanks to a re-release with four sequels on the horizon.
The original version of “Alien 5” would see Ridley Scott direct with Cameron producing and co-writing (possibly with “Alien Resurrection” screenwriter Joss Whedon writing too) and would take Ripley to the homeworld of the xenomorph. The project was never made, but Ridley Scott returned to tackle his prequel “Prometheus” attempting to explore the origin of Space Jockey (engineers) and was a producer on Neill Blomkamp‘s new “Alien 5” incarnation (approved by James Cameron) that would have acted as a direct sequel to “Aliens” (ignoring the other two sequels) before that also stalled, “Alien: Covenant” stepping in to fill the void.
Scott is currently producing Noah Hawley‘s “Alien” series at FX that will be set on Earth and return the franchise to its class warfare root. He’s also talked-up a third prequel film still being in the works that has previously used the working title of “Alien: Awakening.”
Over a year ago I first reported at HN Entertainment that there was a rumbling of a potential live-action Alien series from producer Ridley Scott was in the works at Hulu and later on it was revealed that Fargo‘s Noah Hawley had attempted to pitch an Alien series then played coy about show’s current status when Deadline confronted him with sourced information that it was happening.
There was a sense after HBO Max announced that Ridley Scott’s mature sci-fi series Raised By Wolves was their their most viewed original on the streaming service, that it was only a matter of time before Disney came to their senses with a series set within the Alien universe.
During the Disney Investor Day event earlier in the week, it was officially announced that the series was moving forward at FX on Hulu with a combined effort from Ridley Scott and Noah Hawley. Nothing was revealed outside the project will be the first to be set on a near future Earth, of course, they’re ignoring the Alien vs. Predator films.
Noah had recently telegraphed in an interview with the Observer his series would focus on the human-side of the Alien universe which is just as dangerous as the xenomorphs as profits come before lives.
HAWLEY: “Alien is on some level the complete opposite of Stark 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!’”
Alien is currently in development at @FXNetworks. The first TV series based on the classic film series is helmed by Fargo and Legion's @noahhawley. Expect a scary thrill ride set not too far in the future here on Earth. pic.twitter.com/KBigUGnXpB
Ridley Scott has suggested in various interviews that his Alien: Awakening (working title) could still happen and was in development at 20th Century Studios. A third incarnation of Alien V was recently being written on spec by franchise screenwriters/producers Walter Hill and David Giler. The pair have worked on Scott’s Alien, James Cameron’s Aliens, and David Fincher’s Alien 3.
We’re still waiting on Disney and 20th Century Studios to make announcements concerning the feature film side.
Last year it was revealed that Legion and Fargo showrunner/creator Noah Hawley had attempted to pitch FX and 20th Century Fox a miniseries that takes place within the Alien universe before the merger with Disney. Unfortunately the executives didn’t bite and it never came together.
We now have some idea of what it would have looked like thanks to some interesting new comments from Noah. While speaking with the Observer, Noah seemingly was interested in exploring the themes and characters within the universe rather than simply the action and xenomorphs.
HAWLEY: “Alien is on some level the complete opposite of Stark 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!’”
As it stands there doesn’t seem to be any official movement on the Alien franchise. Ridley Scott keeps talking up a third Alien prequel that may distance itself from the last two installments and there has been a new Alien 5 aka Alien V script making the rounds from Walter Hill and David Giler. The pair of screenwriters previously worked on the first three Alien films.
I would have loved to have seen something new within the Alien universe and a series allows creative people a little more wiggle-room as you’re not completely focused on box office returns. Maybe down the line, Disney will revisit the idea of a series and push for it to land at Hulu/FX allowing to keep its mature tone.
You might be unaware but a full year ago it was reported by Variety that 20th Century Studios was still developing a third Alien prequel film (previously referred to Alien: Awakening) from director Ridley Scott attached and script being written.
This was reinforced by Scott himself when speaking The Hollywood Reporter that there were discussions for future installments.
Ruminating on the immediate future of the Alien franchise, now that Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox, Scott confirms that there are discussions for future installments, but warns that if the basic premise of “the beast” does not evolve like the Xenomorph itself, the “joke” gets old.
The Los Angeles Times was able to speak with Ridley recently and he gave some more hope to fans that are waiting for some official announcement about the project moving forward.
SCOTT: “I still think there’s a lot of mileage in ‘Alien,’ but I think you’ll have to now re-evolve. What I always thought when I was making it, the first one, why would a creature like this be made and why was it traveling in what I always thought was a kind of war-craft, which was carrying a cargo of these eggs. What was the purpose of the vehicle and what was the purpose of the eggs? That’s the thing to question — who, why, and for what purpose is the next idea, I think.”
We don’t know what the main details of Alien: Awakening could be other than David now having access to the Covenant colonists for his experiments. However, an excerpt from Empire Magazine claimed that the third film from screenwriter John Logan (Alien: Covenant) may see David face surviving Engineers, alluding to how the derelict ship got on LV-426 and led to the events of the original Alien.
Lead actor Michael Fassbender is still keen to return for more films after speaking with Italian outlet Bad Taste last year while promoting Dark Phoenix.
FASSBENDER: “I’d love to. I just absolutely love working with Ridley and it was a real moment for me. When I stepped onto the set of Prometheus and got to work with him, and yeah I love the character. It’s a lot of fun, so yeah.”
We’ll have to wait for 20th Century Studios to make an official announcement, but it’s worth mentioning that the new President of Production, Steve Asbell, has a facehugger on his official Twitter avatar image.
THE RONIN 