A remake of 1988 sci-fi cult classic Alien Nation has been floating around in developmental purgatory for over six years since Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone and Men in Black: International writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway were announced to be tackling the script in March 2015.
The following year, Midnight Special and Take Shelter‘s Jeff Nichols was hired to write, direct and generally overhaul the project from the ground up. Things never quite came together, though, and it was ultimately canceled when Disney purchased Fox and began throwing vast swathes of the company’s planned slate onto the discard pile.
Insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that Alien Nation is back in active development, but the tipster doesn’t offer any additional details. This comes hot on the heels of his report last month that it was on the cards once more, but he didn’t expound any further then, either.
However, Richtman indicated that the remake is happening as a feature film, even though the last concrete word we got on the project came from Nichols himself in January, when he revealed Disney had gauged his interest in refitting his pitch as a TV series instead, leading to him re-envisioning it as a ten-episode show.
Given the lack of information readily available, it’s not clear whether Alien Nation is coming back as a feature film or small screen exclusive, but given that it launched a multimedia franchise that spanned a sequel series and five TV movies while the original remains a favorite among genre fans, there’s a built-in audience and level of marketable nostalgia there, two things that modern studios can’t get enough of when it comes to reinventing older properties.
