Jeff Nichols may turn scrapped Alien Nation remake into something else

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Back in 2016, it was announced that Jeff Nichols (TAKE SHELTER, MIDNIGHT SPECIAL) would be writing and directing a remake of the 1988 sci-fi thriller ALIEN NATION for 20th Century Fox. 

Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon, the '88 movie starred James Caan and Mandy Patinkin in a story that

finds Los Angeles the new home of 300,000 humanoid extraterrestrial. When a gang of these Newcomers kills a police detective's (Caan) partner, he sets out to solve the crime with his new partner (Patinkin) – the L.A.P.D.'s first Newcomer detective. But the unlikely pair soon uncover a far more dangerous threat to society. 

Soon after the announcement, Nichols admitted that he was turning an original idea of his into the ALIEN NATION remake. He had turned the remake down when Fox first offered it to him, 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."

Nichols spent years working on the screenplay, and said the studio seemed to "really love it". Work was being done on the conception design of the film and the aliens… and then Fox was bought by Disney, and last year Disney chose to halt development on the project. It was sad to hear that something Nichols had spent so much time on wasn't going to happen, but now actor Michael Shannon, who has been in all five features Nichols has directed, has given us some hope that Nichols' ALIEN NATION story might still be brought to life in some way. 

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Shannon said, 

[Jeff Nichols is] really itching and scratching to make a film. He put a lot of time into this one particular project [ALIEN NATION] that he’d been writing for Fox, and then the Disney merger happened. Disney kinda said, ‘No, thanks.’ So, we’re trying to pick up the pieces there. … It might mutate into something else. It’s still kind of kicking around out there, but it might be something different."

It sounds like the original idea Nichols turned into the ALIEN NATION remake could be turning back into an original project, which would be pretty cool. Nichols has said the story is 

the biggest canvas I’ve ever painted on, but it 100 percent feels like a Jeff Nichols film, which I’m sure there are gonna be some ALIEN NATION fans out there that are like, “What the f*ck?” But my hope is if they … If people come to it just ready for a new story, that they’ll like it. And I put my heart and soul into it. To be the project that’s supposed to be me being a sell out, it is like the least … I’m not saying that to save face or be cool. I put so much of myself into it, it takes place in (Nichols' home state) Arkansas. There’s so much of me in it."

If we hear any rumblings about Jeff Nichols and Michael Shannon teaming up for some sort of alien-themed project, we'll let you know.