Get ready to head back to planet Melmac, as over at Sony, the producer behind The Smurfs and Paul Fusco, the star of the original 80’s sitcom ALF, are prepping to bring the misadventures of everyone’s favorite sarcastic alien puppet to the big screen.
According to Screen Rant, Sony is close to a deal with original series creator and voice of ALF Paul Fusco which would bring the long-nosed alien to the modern age with a combination of live action and CGI (think Hop). The desecration of the 1980’s appears to be alive and well in Hollywood.
For me, re-runs of ALF were a staple of after-school viewing during my childhood and the thought of an adaptation by producer Jordan Kerner (Inspector Gadget, George of the Jungle and The Smurfs) curdles my blood. Frankly, I would be surprised if kids today have any clue who ALF is or what made him special in his original run, so chalk this up to another blind, wrongheaded cash grab.
The only bright spot I can see is the involvement of Fusco (at least we’ll have the original voice for or Alien Life Form) but considering he is the one who petitioned to bring us an update of ALF, I can’t say I have much faith in his motivations.
Fusco had this to say:
“ALF could be more outspoken now than ever, because the world is a whole different place than the ’80s. And I think the character still stands up and certainly has more to say now than ever. I think we would approach it in a fresh way. I don’t think we would duplicate the TV show, but I think we would maybe put it in a storyline where we would explain how ALF got here and put him with a new family and let the character speak for himself.”
I agree that ALF stands up very well today which is precisely why we don’t need a modern update. If this adaptation does go ahead, let’s hope Sony is able to snag someone akin to Phil Lord and Chris Miller to write and direct after they more-than-successfully gave us a new 21 Jump Street earlier this year. Though looking at the track record for the majority of 80’s reimaginings, that may be wishful thinking.
