By JAKE ABBATE March 6, 2022
It looks like FX’s upcoming Alien series from Noah Hawley isn’t the only project infested by Xenomorphs. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fede Alvarez is writing and directing his own Alien movie for 20th Century Studios, which will premiere exclusively on Hulu.
Plot details are under wraps, but sources indicate that Alvarez’s film is unconnected to previous Alien installments. This probably means we can rule out an appearance by Sigourney Weaver as Ripley. However, original Alien director Ridley Scott is producing the new movie through his Scott Free banner.
“It was just a really good story with a bunch of characters you haven’t seen before,” said 20th Century president Steve Asbell. Additionally, Asbell claimed that the studio picked up the film “purely off the strength of Fede’s pitch.”
“It’s not a film that has to be all things to all people with those gargantuan budgets,” added Asbell. “They get to be authentically what they are. And this is closer to its genre roots.”
Alvarez burst onto the scene in 2013 with his reboot of the Evil Dead franchise. He went on to direct Don’t Breathe in 2016 and later helmed 2018’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web. More recently, Alvarez developed the Apple TV+ series Calls and directed all nine of its episodes. He also co-wrote and produced the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel for Netflix.
The film has apparently been a long time coming. THR notes that Alvarez is a “rabid fan” of the Alien franchise, and he pitched his take to Scott a few years back. The director’s ideas “remained implanted in Scott brain” until the end of last year, when Scott phoned Alvarez and asked if he still wanted to make the movie. Naturally, Alvarez jumped at the chance.