Jeff Nichols on making his Alien Nation remake a “reflection of the world”

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

The original ALIEN NATION film wasn't without its own social commentary as it used the recently arrived Newcomers to touch upon race relations and xenophobia. That little bit of social commentary will continue in the upcoming remake of ALIEN NATION, with director Jeff Nichols calling it a "reflection of the world." After a recent screening of LOVING, Nichols spoke with Entertainment Weekly about how his work on ALIEN NATION is progressing as he takes inspiration from the current political climate in the US.

Yeah, and I’m still grappling with that, there was a wall in the script before [the election]. I think films at their best are reflections of the society that produces them. I know for a fact that an audience, when they’re walking to the theater, they bring their issues with them. And I’m always been fascinated by that since my first film. Especially with my first film, I was just in a bubble making something and then I saw the outside world come in and start to put all this stuff on it.

20th Century Fox has been developing a remake of ALIEN NATION for over a year now and signed Jeff Nichols up to write and direct the film just a couple of months ago. While Fox has been keen to cash in on the name recognition which comes with ALIEN NATION, Nichols has said that his take on the property "doesn’t really have anything to do with the original." When Fox first came calling with the offer to take on ALIEN NATION, Nichols initially turned them down, but later realized that he could use the ALIEN NATION title for an idea that he was already working on.

Fox called to ask me to do that. I said, ‘No.’ But I had been working on this bigger idea of my own and then I thought about it said, well you know, that’s a good title. And that title could go on to my bigger idea, then maybe I might actually get a chance to get it made. So in that sense I’m currently building it the same way I built all my other movies, meaning kind of from the ground up.

ALIEN NATION is tentatively scheduled for release in 2018. Jeff Nichols' latest film, LOVING, hit theaters earlier this month and you can read a review from our own Chris Bumbray right here!