For folks that spent their 4th of July weekend starting at a swirling vortex of fire in the ocean, Noah Hawley’s Alien TV show is for you. Hawley presented a concept of his show to Vanity Fair, in which the working people of Earth are trapped with xenomorphs and the biggest bads in the Alien series: Weyland-Yutani. “You will see what happens when the inequality we’re struggling with now isn’t resolved. If we as a society can’t figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what’s going to happen to us?†he said. “There’s that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser [in Aliens] where she says, “I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t fuck each other over for a percentage.â€
The series will be focused on Earth and not feature Ellen Ripley. “The alien stories are always trapped,†Hawley said. “Trapped in a prison, trapped in a space ship.†The heroes of this show, like everyone but Jeff Bezos, will be trapped on planet Earth. Hawley expects to star shooting in spring 2022. This is the third big ol’ sci-fi franchise to which the Fargo creator has been attached. In 2017, Hawley was slated to make a Doctor Doom movie, which seems to have been scuppered by the Disney acquisition. Hawley is also the most recent writer-director attached to the long-gestating Star Trek 4.