20th Century Fox (now the 20th Century Studio) became home to Hollywood’s hottest sci-fi franchises in the late 1970s, finding himself a proud parent of the second scary, far more scary, far more adult series in “Star Wars.” The brainchild of legendary genre screenwriter Dan O’Bannon (and directed towards the stylish perfection by Ridley Scott) terrified them completely until “Aliens” scared their breasts and surprised the audience, and Cigurty Weaver’s Ripley expelled the large, sour bloody Xenomorphs into deep space.
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When “Alien” was wrecked at the box office, Fox knew there was more money mined from these sophisticated black bandits. Certainly, it was at the heart of James Cameron’s famous pitch for “Aliens.” Here, to legend, he scrawled the word “alien” on a cocktail napkin before adding the dollar symbol as “s.” The franchise has been having ups and downs ever since, while Cameron delivers the goods and then has his sequel. David Fincher’s “Alien 3” avoided the thrill of his predecessor’s roller coaster for the capper of the Dour trilogy, where Ripley ended up sacrificeing himself for the benefit of humanity. It’s a great movie (whether you saw the play cuts or chose the assembly cut), but it wasn’t what viewers were looking for in a big, heavily hyped summer movie.
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The problem with the “Alien” franchise continuing to run is that its first installment is one of the greatest and most influential sci-fi/horror films ever made. As a result, the director urges him to create something worthy of Scott’s masterpiece, rather than knocking out the “alien vs. predator” flick of Pulp. When Scott returned to the series with “Prometheus,” he imagined a thematically heavily paid trilogy of the film about a malicious droid called David (Michael Fassbender), who attempts to evolve the Xenomorph through experiments.
While there’s nothing wrong with going on the pulp trash route in “Alien,” masters like Scott, Cameron and Fincher prove that the bones of these films have plenty of meat to dig into if the director chooses. So, I enjoyed Fede Alvarez’s “Alien: Romulus,” but I’m far more excited about Noah Holy’s “Alien: Earth,” a series that will premiere on FX later this year. What is the Primetime Emmy Award-winning TV Maestro? This is what we know so far.
Who is in the Alien: Earth?
Sidney Chandler, daughter of “Friday Night Light” star Kyle Chandler, leads an impressive ensemble full of familiar faces and less familiar names. Obviously, the second lead in the series does not require an introduction. Timothy Oliphant, who has been the fortune of Forex since falling into the role of “justified” fast lawyer Raylan Givens 15 years ago, is huge for Holy (as you can get your hair dyed white as you can see in the image above). The cast is concluded by Alex Rother (“Andre”), Essie Davis (“Miss Fisher’s Murder Mystery”), Samuel Brenkin (“Peaky Blinds”), Adarsh Gourav (“Lamine Bharani’s sensational “White Tiger”” and Kit (“Shadow and Bone”).
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Where is the franchise timeline? Alien: Earth Set?
Ah, the “Alien” timeline, how you will be surprised and confused. In fact, it’s not that complicated. It’s strange to see so far that installments to the future (2381 to be precise) are the overwhelming “Alien: Resurrection” of 1997. I may not be a huge fan of the film, but as a longtime “alien” fan, I’d try to understand the story with Nu Ripley if I’d just give the character a more appropriate look.
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In any case, “Alien: Earth” is set to be close to 2,120, with Prometheus 31 years ahead, and a small one six years before “Alien: Covenant.” In other cases, entries other than “AVP” in the series are set for 2122, followed by “Alien: Romulus” in 2142, “Alien” in 2179, and “Alien 3” in the same year. This means that the Holy show should lead directly to the “alien” depending on how long it lasts, and will likely end with Nostromo’s crew being ordered to stop by LV-426.
Alien: What is Earth’s Conspiracy?
It was plotting details of “Alien: Earth” for nearly five years, but with the premier approaching, FX finally held hands and informed fans of cards that Holy and executive producer Scott had dealt with themselves. It’s interesting!
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The Holy series is set on Earth, dominated by five separate companies: Genius, Lynch, Dynamic, Threshold, and yes, Wyland Utani. The planet is home to humans, advanced androids (AIs), and cyborgs (humans equipped with mechanical components), but this balance is about to be shaken by the invention of the hybrid of Prodigy, a humanoid robot that has soaked into human consciousness. Chandler’s Wendy is the first hybrid, and when the deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crashes onto Earth, she finds herself at the forefront of a terrifying discovery. What is on the ship? I haven’t said FX at the moment, but I think you can guess.
There have already been nominated that there will be five monsters in the series, but what interests me most is where Maginot was and who he contacted. Essentially, I want to truly believe that Maginot connected to a hand-piloted contract with David. My fingers crossed!
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Who is making the aliens: Earth?
Noah Holly started in Hollywood as a procedural “bone” writer for Hit Fox, but he grabbed himself onto the TV A-list in the highly effective first season of FX’s “Fargo.” The success of “Fargo” allowed Holy to loosen up in the Boncars Marvel series “Legion” and to steal the crack with his first traits in the failed Natalie Portman car “Lucy in the Sky.” Holy has an endless imagination, but sometimes he gets him in trouble (like “Legion,” I rarely see shows boring from inspiration in the same episode, sometimes in the same episode).
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Ridley Scott is another celebrity from “Alien: Earth.” I would like to believe that the 87-year-old genius was able to incorporate elements of his unacted Third David film into the series. However, the man has plenty of irons in the fire (he is currently filming the dystopian sci-fi project “The Dog Stars” at Cinecittà Studios, Rome). Seeing writing credits for the series eight episodes, Holy wrote about veteran scribe Bob Delaurentis (Bruce Paltrow’s late 1970s basketball drama “The White Shadow,” but most recently “The Umbrella Academy,” Bobak Esfarjani (“Wandavision”), Lisa logs (“The Emeria Melnik),” Migizi Pensoneau (the amazing “reservation dog”). It’s a very diverse list of writers, which makes me even more excited to see what Holy does.
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When is Alien: Earth Premiere?
“Alien: Earth” will drop the first two episodes of Hulu and FX’s August 12th at 8pm ET. The subsequent episodes premiere at the same time every Tuesday. So far, this is everything you know about your next trip to the horrifying universe where no one can hear you scream.
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