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Loving director Jeff Nichols is finalizing a deal to write and direct ALIEN NATION, a remake of the 1988 sci-fi thriller, for 20th Century Fox. The original film starred James Caan as a hard-minded cop who is partnered with an alien played by Mandy Patinkin to stop an evil alien’s attempt to rule society after their ship crashes on Earth. The film launched a 1989 TV series. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway worked on a previous draft of the script.
Nichols will write, direct, and produce along with Brian Kavanaugh-Jones under his Automatik banner and Sara Greene through her Sara Greene Film Corp. – both of whom produced Loving with Nichols.
Fox has been interested in rebooting Alien Nation since at least 2014, when Mark Roybal and Ryan Jones were steering the project for the studio. No word yet as to whether or not the producers are still involved.
Nichols has steadily built his profile as a director capable of infusing character-driven family drama with magical realism and science fiction in films like Take Shelter and Mud. Loving, the civil rights drama premiering at Toronto International Film Festival this week, is the second feature from Nichols released this year. Earlier in 2016, Nichols’ had sci-fi drama Midnight Special hit theaters. He recently worked on the Aquaman script for Warner Bros. and adapted the true story Fusion Boy for director Gary Ross, Peter Chernin and Fox.
Nichols is repped by CAA and Rise Management.
—TO SEE ALL THE PROJECT DETAILS CLICK HERE—
Josh Lyons | Managing Editor
This news was first reported by Deadline.
