You just can’t keep Ridley Scott away from aliens. Even though he’s spent a good portion of time dealing with Egypt for his upcoming film Exodus: Gods and Kings (which does not have aliens, I hope), the director has decided that he’s not done screwing around with that nation’s history.
Deadline is reporting that Scott is now signed on to direct and produce an hour-long HBO series titled Pharoah that will produce an – ahem – “alternative explanation for the foundation and ascent of the Egyptian Empire.” In other words: Egypt was founded by aliens.
The “Egyptian aliens” theme is not exactly new. Conspiracy theorists have tried for years to explain how it’s totally impossible for human beings to actually build the Pyramids (these theorists apparently don’t understand what the phrase “slave labor” means). The only explanation, therefore, is that aliens built the Egyptian Pyramids. Now, Scott and HBO are going to take something like that idea and run with it. I wonder if this will be co-produced by the History Channel?
To make matters even more interesting, the scriptwriter set to pen the series is David Schulner, whose last project was as creator, producer, and showrunner of NBC’s Do No Harm, a modern version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If you do not recall that show, it’s because it was cancelled after only two episodes. Doesn’t that make you hopeful about the future of Pharoah.
Of course, Scott is all about aliens, so why shouldn’t he do a show about aliens and ancient Egypt? We already know that big albino guys are the source of all human endeavor, so why not just go the extra mile and toss some actual history into the mix?
There’s no word yet on when Pharoah will hit the airwaves, but chance are it will be before Prometheus 2 and certainly long before Blade Runner 2. I think for that we can all be truly thankful.
