‘Alien Nation’ Remake “Epic” And Set In Arkansas, Says Director Jeff Nichols
By Jack Giroux/Nov. 2, 2018 8:30 am EST
The original movie is a conventional but well-done L.A. cop movie with a sci-fi twist: three years after aliens came to earth, they’re now our neighbors, co-workers, and dance teachers. While well-intentioned, the film is a little too surface-level when it comes to its depiction of racism and xenophobia. The remake, however, may dig deeper than the original.
Here’s what the Mud and Take Shelter director had to say about the Alien Nation remake:
It’s epic. I mean, it’s the biggest canvas I’ve ever painted on, but it 100 percent feels like a Jeff Nichols film, which I’m sure there are gonna be some Alien Nation fans out there that are like, “What the fuck?” But my hope is if they … If people come to it just ready for a new story, that they’ll like it. And I put my heart and soul into it. To be the project that’s supposed to be me being a sell out, it is like the least … I’m not saying that to save face or be cool. I put so much of myself into it, it takes place in Arkansas. There’s so much of me in it.
When you’re making something that big, there’s just so many things that are out of your control. In a weird way, all you can control and concentrate on is the creative aspect. The winds will blow you where they blow you, but as long as you’re telling to where you want to tell, and whenever that stops, then you gotta raise your hand and go, “Guys, this isn’t gonna work for me anymore.”
But so far, that’s not been the case. So hopefully Alien Nation goes, I’ve got a couple of things that I won’t say are more serious films, because Alien Nation is actually pretty serious, but there’s a lot more traditional kind of adult movies. I’ve got a couple of those but I haven’t settled on one, and then I’ve got a really another big PG, PG-13 kind of like summer blockbuster family film, which makes it sound real lame, but it’s not. It’s more like Mud, but with some bigger fantastical elements in it.
With his independent films, Nichols was able to make some grand images with limited resources, so the potential of his vision backed by a huge budget could be something to witness and a real event film. He’s already written and directed Midnight Special, a sci-fi movie with great substance, emotion, and spectacle, so his return to the genre is more than promising. Especially if Alien Nation stars Michael Shannon as an alien.
