Nearly two years have passed since we first heard the rumblings that Noah Hawley, creator of the TV shows Fargo and Legion, was developing an FX TV series based on the Alien franchise. That was before 20th Century Fox was absorbed by Disney, and at the time Fox executive Emma Watts shot down the idea because she didn't like the thought of film properties being repurposed as TV projects. Well, Fox is owned by Disney now, Emma Watts is working for Paramount, and this project has gotten a greenlight. During Disney's Investor Day event, it was officially announced that Noah Hawley is developing and executive producing an Alien TV series for "FX on Hulu", with Ridley Scott in talks to executive produce as well.
Disney said to
expect a scary thrill ride set not too far in the future here on Earth.
A setting "not too far in the future" and "here on Earth" is definitely not what I ever would have expected for an Alien TV series.
Just a few months ago, Hawley discussed the pitch he made for the series the first time around:
Alien is 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!’"
FX chairman John Landgraf said the TV show will blend "the timeless horror of the first Alien film with the non-stop action of the second". I'm definitely on board to watch something like that.