20th Century Fox has been developing a remake of ALIEN NATION for over a year now, but according to Jeff Nichols, who signed on to write and direct the project last month, it won't be a remake at all. Nichols chatted with ScreenCrush recently and said that the upcoming film "doesn’t really have anything to do with the original." Apparently the only connection between Nichols' flick and the original movie is the title, so why is it being called ALIEN NATION? Name recognition, bitches!
Fox called to ask me to do that. I said, ‘No.’ But I had been working on this bigger idea of my own and then I thought about it said, well you know, that’s a good title. And that title could go on to my bigger idea, then maybe I might actually get a chance to get it made. So in that sense I’m currently building it the same way I built all my other movies, meaning kind of from the ground up.
The 1988 film introduced the Newcomers, an alien race who landed on Earth and were forced to live among the distrustful human population. The film starred James Caan as an LA police detective who finds himself partnered with a Newcomer played by Mandy Patinkin in order to solve a homicide. With Nichols' upcoming film being ALIEN NATION in name only, I suspect we can wipe the original's synopsis from our minds. As a big fan of Nichols, I was looking forward to this film anyway, but knowing that it will be an original project rather than just another remake makes it all the better. Just throw Michael Shannon in there and you've got yourself a picture.