We’ve heard Ridley Scott dropping the odd soundbite about the status of his Alien TV series, but now showrunner Noah Hawley has provided an update on how their small screen world-building is coming along, admitting that “it’s going great” but “it’s going slowly”.
A man of many talents, the Fargo and Legion creator was speaking with Esquire about his latest novel Anthem, when the subject of his Alien spin-off was raised, to which Hawley responded, “It’s going great. It’s going slowly, unfortunately, given the scale of it. I’ve made a certain business out of reinvention. Alien is a fascinating story because it’s not just a monster movie; it’s about how we’re trapped between the primordial past and the artificial intelligence of our future, where both trying to kill us. It’s set on Earth of the future. At this moment, I describe that as Edison versus Westinghouse versus Tesla. Someone’s going to monopolize electricity. We just don’t know which one it is.”
He continued, quoting Aliens in a way which makes him sound like the perfect man to course correct the franchise following the lacklustre critical and commercial response to Alien: Covenant, adding “In the movies, we have this Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which is clearly also developing artificial intelligence—but what if there are other companies trying to look at immortality in a different way, with cyborg enhancements or transhuman downloads? Which of those technologies is going to win? It’s ultimately a classic science fiction question: does humanity deserve to survive? As Sigourney Weaver said in that second movie, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t fuck each other over for a percentage.’ Even if the show was 60% of the best horror action on the planet, there’s still 40% where we have to ask, ‘What are we talking about it, beneath it all?’ Thematically, it has to be interesting. It’s humbling to get to play with the iconography of this world.”
SEE ALSO: Ridley Scott talks Alien TV show: “It’ll never be as good as the movie”
Big corporations fighting over futuristic commodities while xenomorphs inherit the Earth? Sounds like there are some interesting real world parallels at play. Let’s hope the gestation period for production is as fast as that chestburster in Kane’s ribcage and we get to see Alien sooner rather than later. Let us know what you think of the small-screen prospects for Alien by heading to our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
