Talks between the U.S. actors union SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have broken down, and it’s expected that SAG will vote to go on strike today, joining the Writers Guild, which has already been on strike for more than two months now. The writers strike has shut down multiple productions, and any projects that are still in production may soon have to shut down or find a way to work around the fact that SAG actors won’t be reporting to set until the strike is over. In there coverage of the impending SAG strike, Variety mentions that one of the productions that will be complicated by this strike is the Alien TV series that Fargo TV series creator Noah Hawley has been developing for “FX on Hulu” – and they also revealed that the show will be filming in Thailand.
Here’s what Variety had to say about the Alien TV series: FX’s Alien, a series adaptation of the Alien franchise written by Noah Hawley and Ridley Scott, is currently in pre-production in Thailand. Sources indicate the show will be a large-scale undertaking that’s reportedly booked out multiple Bangkok studios and hired vast quantities of lighting equipment. However, a mix of SAG-AFTRA and Equity members comprise the cast (two of the main leads are believed to be SAG-AFTRA members), meaning that production will need to work around the absence of key cast members. The show’s Thailand-based producer Chris Lowenstein declined to comment.
While Scott is producing the series through his Scott Free banner, it seems unlikely that he’s actually a writer on the show. But I’m sure the rest of the information there is accurate. Sydney Chandler, whose previous credits include Don’t Worry Darling and the mini-series Pistol, recently signed on to star in the series, but that’s the only casting announcement that has been made so far.
FX head John Landgraf has previously revealed the timeframe the Alien TV show is set in. He told Deadline, “There are some big surprises in store for the audience. Alien takes place before Ripley. It’s the first story that takes place in the Alien franchise on Earth. So, it takes place on our planet. Right near the end of this century we’re in — so 70-odd years from now. Ripley won’t be a part of it or any of the other characters of Alien other than the alien itself.”
A late-2090s setting would place the events of this show in between the events of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
Landgraf has also said, “The Alien cinematic universe is a world that’s sort of dominated by large corporate entities, and Weylan-Yutani has been an important component of the movies. There are references to that corporation in this show. But it actually takes place in the territory of a different corporation that Noah invented.“
A list of everything we know about the Alien TV series can be found at THIS LINK. Are you looking forward to this show? Let us know by leaving a comment below.