Variety is reporting that Sci Fi is working on developing a remake of Alien Nation, the 1988 feature film (and subsequently a TV series).
For obvious reasons Sc Fi is looking for its Battlestar Galactica filler. According to the release the new series:
The new “Alien Nation” will likely take place in the Pacific Northwest, and will take place about 20 years after the first ship of aliens – who have been banished as slaves – crash lands into Earth.
By the time the show begins, some time in the 2020s, the alien population has multiplied from a few thousand to 3.5 million. And much of the “newcomers” live their own segregated existence, in what Minear compares to the North African ghettos in France.
Given the job to write the project is Tim Minear who previously has worked on Lois and Clark and The X-Files. He also wrote, produced, and directed episodes of Strange World, Angel, Firefly, Wonderfalls, and The Inside. I liked Wonderfalls quite a bit (another Fox show that bit the dust). A quick look on wiki also reveals Minear was also the assistant director on Platoon
I remember the original film because it had my boy Inigo Montoya in it (because at that time I was a Princess Bride fiend) but beyond that I honestly have no real recollection of the show.
I remember the movie–James Caan! But I remember the show more, its a favorite of me and my father’s. Actually we bought the boxset that came out and did a marathon of it no more then 6 months ago. Plus of course the 5 TV movies.
If you judge the show against the movie then it’ll come up wanting (but that’s the way of such things) b/c the movie was definitely less about proving a statement or making a statement then it was about aliens, humans and the fun that can happen because of it. The show slowly went from being a pretty fun take on the whole buddy cop dynamic to using the Newcomers as templates to discuss racial issues, religious issues, political issues…pretty much you name it and the Newcomers became the vehicle for the writers to talk about it. Sometimes it worked out well…other times it was a sore try to the patience. The TV Movies messed it up more then the show.
Then also they began to sort of ‘sanitize’ the Newcomers. First with how they looked (in the movie they were much more thuggish looking. the show had them look like bald humans with spots on their heads pretty much), then they made George want to be so ‘human’ that it put him at odds with his family more often then not. Though his family, with the great exception of his Father and the lackluster exception of his son, pretty much followed his lead. I liked the show best when it dispensed with the veiled social commentary and gave us glimpses at the Newcomer population–not just as trying to fit into the world, but also their history and such.
Er…
I’ll reserve judgment about the new show since Minear is working on it and I tend to like his work (or at least his influence). Curious they don’t mention the creator–Rockne S. O’Bannon. Is he then not having anything to do with it (I mean is he still sore over farscape or was he just not mentioned?).
What I read noted him as being the writer of the past incarnation, but I don’t believe anything else.
I will probably tune in the remake out of curiosity. To see if the Newcomers have also spread to other areas of the United States. Like, say, Texas; or, the NYC boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens?