Jeff Nichols to write and direct Fox’s remake of Alien Nation

By Kevin Fraser

Posted 10 years ago

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

I'm suddenly much more interested in the upcoming remake of ALIEN NATION now that Deadline has reported that Jeff Nichols (LOVING) is currently making a deal with 20th Century Fox to write and direct the movie. Previous reports stated that Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, two of the four credited screenwriters on IRON MAN, had started work on the script but it looks like Nichols will now be taking over.

The original ALIEN NATION movie introduced the Newcomers, an alien race who landed on Earth and were forced to live among the distrustful human population. The film starred James Caan as an LA police detective who finds himself partnered with a Newcomer played by Mandy Patinkin in order to solve a homicide. ALIEN NATION was successful enough to spawn a TV series as well as five TV movies afterwards, but beyond being aware of the films existence and its general premise, I'm not really up on my ALIEN NATION lore. Jeff Nichols has quickly emerged as one of my favourite directors of recent years and ALIEN NATION will likely be the biggest project he's tackled to date. The real question is what role Nichols' frequent collaborator Michael Shannon will play. He'd be great in any role, but I'd love to see him suited up as a Newcomer.

About the Author

Kevin Fraser

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Favorite Movies: Alien, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, read more Braveheart, The Bridge on the River Kwai, City of God, Cloud Atlas, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Edge, The Fifth Element, Galaxy Quest, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Godfather Parts I & II, Goodfellas, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Magnificent Seven, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, The Prestige, Prisoners, Psycho, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rear Window, The Shining, Sorcerer, The Talented Mr. Ripley, There Will be Blood, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Zodiac

Likes: Drawing, cooking, watching movies, trying and failing to come up with read more more items for my likes list.

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