I remember reading something about a possible remake of Alien Nation with Megan Fox....
Has anything happened with this?
Has anything happened with this?
Alien Nation remake?
- Thread starter SiddFinch1
- Start date
Bryan Singer's doing it right after the big-screen Battlestar Galactica movie.
the last update was
SyFy Channel Developing ‘Alien Nation’ Remake
July 1
http://www.scifiscoop.com/news/syfy-channel-developing-alien-nation-remake/
see Trek BBS thread
Alien Nation to be remade by TIM MINEAR on SyFy
^Well, that depends on what you consider a continuation. Sykes and Francisco would be too old to be the focus now, but AN postulated a whole alternate world that surely has many other facets to be explored through other characters. Sure, it would have to be treated as an alternate history/present rather than a near future, but that was already the case by the time the revival movies came out; in-universe, the Newcomers landed in 1991, and the movies were 1994-7.
I suppose a continuation with new characters is possible, though the television movies managed to mess up the timeline a little, as I remember.
Still, I think it's better to approach the story not long after the Newcomers have first landed. That way you can have technology in the beginning of the series be mostly contemporary, and have the Newcomer society be less fully assimilated into the city of Los Angeles.
Still, I think it's better to approach the story not long after the Newcomers have first landed. That way you can have technology in the beginning of the series be mostly contemporary, and have the Newcomer society be less fully assimilated into the city of Los Angeles.
Well, the first movie pretty much decanonized the season finale of the series, because it retold some of the same events differently and several years later. But that's always been fine with me, because I thought the season finale was silly, an extreme case of the kind of finale that forces every character into a contrived crisis at the same time for the sake of a cliffhanger.
The one thing the movies really messed up was Newcomer longevity. The last movie showed Newcomers in their 70s and 80s as senior citizens, even though the series had established that George was in his upper 60s and was in the prime of life.
But that story's already been told. I'd be more interested in seeing how the humans and Newcomers have adjusted 20 or so years post-landing. (And I don't see why the tech couldn't still be contemporary.)
It's just that, in its one season on the air, Alien Nation created a world that felt incredibly real to me. I got so caught up in it that there were times when I was out on the street, saw a bald man in the distance, and thought for a fleeting moment that he was a Newcomer. It was a world that I wanted to continue. So I've always wished I could see more tales told in that universe, exploring it more fully.
Oh, I love that world, too. Even in the telefilms--hell--even in the original feature. I just wonder if it might be easier for new audiences to re-tell the beginnings and then go from there, especially since the universe and characters have been through three revisions already (feature film, television series, telefilms...each one incorporating some parts of the predecessor, but not all).
As for the contemporary tech, I feel like Newcomer technology would become more and more incorporated into Earth society as time went on. Twenty years in I don't buy things being just like they are now, especially if the Newcomers are depicted as having the same ability to adapt as they demonstrated on the television show. I'm also not convinced that they would stay so close to Los Angeles after such a period, if salt water was so hazardous (a detail that is kind of silly and could be dropped or altered in a remake).
As for the contemporary tech, I feel like Newcomer technology would become more and more incorporated into Earth society as time went on. Twenty years in I don't buy things being just like they are now, especially if the Newcomers are depicted as having the same ability to adapt as they demonstrated on the television show. I'm also not convinced that they would stay so close to Los Angeles after such a period, if salt water was so hazardous (a detail that is kind of silly and could be dropped or altered in a remake).
You guys know the working title for the original feature was "Outer Heat"? I was just wondering if the franchise would have turned out the same if they had kept that title (but everything else was the same). You know, different title = different emphasis on the content; i.e. emphasis on the cop aspect instead of second-class citizen aspect. Maybe it wouldn't have generated the same interest and it wouldn't have been picked up as a show.
What do you think, am I reaching here? At the very least I'm certain the show would have been called something other than "Outer Heat".
What do you think, am I reaching here? At the very least I'm certain the show would have been called something other than "Outer Heat".
Since the real hook of Alien Nation has always been immigration (indeed the title says as much) and given that from what I gather that's as hot a topic in the US as it's ever been, I think a square one remake is the only way to go.
A continuation would be more about second or even third generation immigrants, probably loosing touch with their heritage and I just don't see a bunch of network execs buying that show.
A continuation would be more about second or even third generation immigrants, probably loosing touch with their heritage and I just don't see a bunch of network execs buying that show.
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When the series came out on DVD, I was really surprised that it was only one season. In my memory, the universe of the show was so fleshed-out and detailed, and so much 'stuff' happened in the series, that I thought it went on longer.
I expressed this thought to Eric and Michelle at a creation con once, and she turned to him and said, "THAT's why we got cancelled! Too much stuff!"
I expressed this thought to Eric and Michelle at a creation con once, and she turned to him and said, "THAT's why we got cancelled! Too much stuff!"
Seems like this type of delayed production is standard SyFy operating procedure. Think about the time between Caprica's announcement, the pilot filming, and when the series debuted. At this point I still wouldn't be shocked to hear Revolution receive a green light. I'm sure when Universe gets pulled or Blood and Chrome bombs, SyFy will announce that they have commisioned Alien Nation to take its place.
Not to mention that Kenneth Johnson's other baby, V, is also covering a lot of the same ground (granted, Alien Nation in its original form didn't really have a strong invasion angle. But that's not to say the remake won't be basically V 2.0).
Alex
Well, we're only talking a jump of 15-20 years from the original series, depending on whether it stuck with being 6-ish years ahead or just set it in an alternate present. The technology wouldn't have to be too radically different from ours.
Besides, that would be one of the things I'd like to see explored -- how the world is changing over time as a consequence of the Newcomers' presence. I get so tired of TV science fiction that insists on hewing close to the everyday world by keeping the aliens or superpowers or whatever a secret. Science fiction is supposed to be about exploring how innovation and discovery changes human life, nature, and society. By avoiding the exploration of such societal changes, SFTV wastes the potential of the genre. Part of what was so special about Alien Nation was that it didn't avoid that kind of change but embraced it.
There's absolutely no reason why a sequel series would have to be set in Los Angeles. A number of the tie-in materials to the show, including one or two of the novels and many of the comics, were set in other locations. (The comics didn't feature the TV characters, instead introducing original characters and situations within the context of the AN universe. That's the sort of thing I'd like to see -- stories linked only by being in the same reality, broadening its scope by exploring different facets of it.)
Actually the emphasis of the original film was profoundly different from that of the series. The film was basically Lethal Weapon with an alien, focusing far more on the mismatched buddy-cop dynamic and the action than on the worldbuilding and social science fiction. And that's what FOX wanted when they began developing it as a series. But when they approached Kenneth Johnson to do it, he was uninterested in that aspect of the film -- but he was fascinated by a throwaway scene in the film of George saying goodbye to his family as he went off to work. He realized that family barely glimpsed in the distance in the film was where the interesting story lay. And so it was his choice to give the series the emphasis it had.
In fact, the film's original working title was Future Tense, but executives didn't like that, so it became Outer Heat. That was changed because there were two other movies with similar titles being released in the same summer, Red Heat and Dead Heat. It then became Future Force for a brief moment, then went back to Outer Heat, and finally ended up as Alien Nation. (Luckily I still have the old Starlog issues that chronicle its name changes.)
The main alien character's name also changed in the process. The reason he's nicknamed "George" by Sykes when his legal Earth name is Sam Francisco is that he was originally going to be called George Jetson, but the filmmakers couldn't clear the rights to use the name.
Alien Nation was a title that ended up fitting the series far better than it ever fit the film, which squandered its opportunity to explore its innovative SF premise and instead settled for being a mediocre buddy-cop film.
Actually that's good reason not to be surprised. Success gets imitated.
Right, that's why I was wondering what would have happened with the series if the other, inappropriate title was used. Any of them.
I didn't know about all the other titles, but I did know about George Jetson. Although in the series they jettisoned that (oops) and just gave his name as George Francisco, I believe.
^Well, my point is that FOX's original plan was to do a Lethal Weapon buddy-cop series anyway, even with the Alien Nation title, because that's what the film was. The choice of approach was independent of the title. If it had been Outer Heat and they'd offered it to Kenneth Johnson, he would've still made the same choice about how to approach it. And I don't think they would've changed the title.
Oh, I see. But it would've been confusing to viewers.
Although come to think of it, no more confusing than the title "Alien Nation" was for a buddy-cop movie.
Although come to think of it, no more confusing than the title "Alien Nation" was for a buddy-cop movie.
I don't see why it would've been confusing. It's not a great title, but "heat" has been slang for "police" for a long time, and "outer" suggests aliens. The series may have had a character/sociological focus, but it was still very much a cop drama.
For that matter, Johnson's approach to the series was inspired by the film In the Heat of the Night, about a bigoted cop being paired with a black partner. Heck, the movie was inspired by that as well, but failed to develop its potential. So the "Heat" would've probably been taken as an allusion to that. And indeed, maybe it was supposed to be.
For that matter, Johnson's approach to the series was inspired by the film In the Heat of the Night, about a bigoted cop being paired with a black partner. Heck, the movie was inspired by that as well, but failed to develop its potential. So the "Heat" would've probably been taken as an allusion to that. And indeed, maybe it was supposed to be.
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