SciFi Developing Alien Nation Remake

Sci Fi is developing a reboot of Alien Nation, the 1988 feature that previously spawned a spinoff series on Fox. Tim Minear – no stranger to sci-fi tales, having worked on The X-Files, Firefly and Strange World – is writing the fresh take on the franchise. Fox 21, the alternative production arm of 20th Century Fox TV, will produce. Alien Nation centers on the partnership between a veteran cop and his alien detective partner, set against the larger tale of alien “newcomers” who move to Earth and attempt to assimilate into society.

The new Alien Nation would include a mythology that evolves over time and will also touch on some of the issues of the day, such as the immigrant experience and how society integrates an incoming culture. Minear said he’s looking forward to incorporating a mix of all the different kinds of series he’s written in the past.

Minear is currently busy outlining the Alien Nation script and mapping out the project’s mythology. 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.

The original film, which took place in 1991, was directed by Graham Baker and written by Rockne S. O’Bannon (with an uncredited revise by James Cameron). Mandy Patinkin and James Caan starred as alien cop Sam Francisco and his reluctant human partner, respectively; Terence Stamp also starred.

In 1989, 20th Century Fox TV and Kenneth Johnson Prods. adapted the movie for Fox, with Eric Pierpoint and Gary Graham in the lead roles. The show lasted just a single season but spawned a series of books.

The TV show was revived in 1994 as a series of telepics for Fox, starting with Alien Nation: Dark Horizon. Five TV movies were ultimately aired; the last, Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy, ran in 1997.