Alien Nation arrived in cinemas in 1988, using a sci-fi concept of aliens integrating into human society to explore ideas of immigration, segregation, culture clash and slavery wrapped in a mismatched buddy cop action film starring James Caan as human cop Matthew Sykes and Mandy Patinkin as “Newcomer” detective Samuel “George” Francisco. The film spawned a TV series, which ran for a season and a few TV movies. Now 20th Century Fox is looking to revisit the idea with Iron Man writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway{
The story of the original saw Sykes dealing with his own prejudice towards the Newcomers, a sentiment shared by many humans wary of the outsiders, who have strange customs (they get drunk on sour milk, for example) and are largely forced to stay within their own communities.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the plan is to re-envision the movie from the ground up in the hopes of launching a successful franchise along the likes of the Planet Of The Apes films. Of course, that will depend on the first instalment working, and Marcum and Holloway will kick the process with the script. Little is known about what the plot plan is at this point, but the trade magazine has learned that it’ll explore the little-probed story of how and why the extra-terrestrials arrived on Earth at all.
Given that one film generated the spin-off series, comic books and novels, Fox will be hoping for big things from the new version.