Well before Fox was acquired by Disney and all of the studio’s franchises went into a state of limbo, there has been a constant struggle to figure out what to do with “Alien.” Ridley Scott has tried to extend the universe with his spin-off films, with varying degrees of success, but it’s been decades since a filmmaker has been able to successfully take the “Alien” franchise into new territory. That’s where “Fargo” creator Noah Hawley and his upcoming “Alien” FX series come in.
According to a new interview with Vanity Fair, the writer-producer is really hoping to expand fans’ understanding of “Alien” by making it less about being trapped on a spaceship with deadly creatures and more about the politics and society that would have to exist for that sort of story to take place. Hawley talks about his idea for the “Alien” TV series by first discussing the previous features from filmmakers like Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and David Fincher.
“Those are great monster movies, but they’re not just monster movies,” he explained. “They’re about humanity trapped between our primordial, parasitic past and our artificial intelligence future—and they’re both trying to kill us. Here you have human beings and they can’t go forward and they can’t go back. So I find that really interesting.”
As for the setting of the series, Hawley is quick to point out that his “Alien” story is not Ripley-centric.
“It’s not a Ripley story,” Hawley said. “She’s one of the great characters of all time, and I think the story has been told pretty perfectly, and I don’t want to mess with it. It’s a story that’s set on Earth also. The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a spaceship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of ‘What happens if you can’t contain it?’ are more immediate.”
He added, “On some level, it’s also a story about inequality. You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how ’70s a movie it is, and how it’s really this blue-collar space-trucker world in which Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are basically ‘Waiting for Godot.’ They’re like Samuel Beckett characters, ordered to go to a place by a faceless nameless corporation. The second movie is such an ‘80s movie, but it’s still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work.”
The producer continued by explaining that his “Alien” series is more about the society and politics that result in sending people to do that sort of “dirty work.”
“In mine, you’re also going to see the people who are sending them,” said Hawley, “So you will see what happens when the inequality we’re struggling with now isn’t resolved. If we as a society can’t figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what’s going to happen to us? There’s that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser where she says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t fuck each other over for a percentage.’”
Though Hawley admits “Alien” will be his next project and he already has two of the scripts written, the preproduction that goes into a big-budget sci-fi series such as this means production isn’t likely to begin until next spring. So, if you’re anxiously awaiting the new “Alien” FX series, patience is going to be important.
