The James Caan/Mandy Patinkin ’80s sci-fi/cop movie hybrid Alien Nation is getting an update.
THR reports that Iron Man writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway are developing a remake of the 1988 movie directed by Graham Baker, produced by Gale Anne Hurd, and written by Rockne S O’Bannon. There’s currently no word on a producer or a director.
The original movie was “set in a near future where humans and a race of aliens are forced to co-exist, tenuously, as humans keep the newcomers mostly segregated and without rights. The story then told of the first alien police officer (Patinkin), who is paired with a racially insensitive partner (Caan). Soon, however, a case comes along that brings the two together in friendship and respect.”
The film was turned into a short-lived one-season TV show in 1989 that was followed by a clutch of TV movies in the mid-’90s, while Tim Minear was attached to a potential TV reboot in 2009 that disappeared.
The only plot detail to be teased from this new version is that “the first installment will begin by telling how and why the aliens came to Earth,” and that Fox is hoping for a Planet Of The Apes-style franchise resurgence.
You can buy Alien Nation on DVD for £7.20 at Amazon.co.uk. Keep up with the latest genre news with the new issue of SciFiNow.
