Jeff Nichols to write and direct a remake of Alien Nation

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

It has been well over twenty years since I last watched director Graham Baker's 1988 sci-fi thriller ALIEN NATION, but thanks to cable airings, the one season TV series that followed the film, and the five TV movies that followed the series, the spotty-headed extraterrestrials of this franchise were a frequent sight during my youth.

The ALIEN NATION property has been dormant since the last TV movie aired in 1997, but now it's set to get a revival, with Jeff Nichols closing a deal to write and direct a remake of the original film for 20th Century Fox.

Scripted by Rockne S. O'Bannon, the '88 movie starred James Caan and Mandy Patinkin in a story that

finds Los Angeles the new home of 300,000 humanoid extraterrestrial. When a gang of these Newcomers kills a police detective's (Caan) partner, he sets out to solve the crime with his new partner (Patinkin) – the L.A.P.D.'s first Newcomer detective. But the unlikely pair soon uncover a far more dangerous threat to society. 

Nothing has been revealed about Nichols' take on the material, or if the aliens will be sporting that same unforgettable look in his version of the story.

Nichols' most recent film was the sci-fi chase movie MIDNIGHT SPECIAL.