Posted in: FX, Hulu, Preview, TV | Tagged: alien, fx, fx networks, hulu, noah hawley

Alien: Noah Hawley on How Involved Ridley Scott Is With FX Series

While promoting Fargo Season 5, Noah Hawley discussed how involved Ridley Scott is in FX Networks' upcoming Alien series.

As exciting as it is to have FX Networks & Noah Hawley's Fargo back for a fifth season, it's also no surprise that Hawley would be getting questions about his upcoming series take on the "Alien" franchise. With SAG-AFTRA in the process of voting to ratify a new three-year agreement, a ton of television productions were frozen due to the strike -and now, they're beginning to get the wheels spinning once again. Having given an update on where things stood recently (more on that below), Hawley covered another question that fans of the franchise have had since the series was first announced. How involved is "Alien" icon Ridley Scott? "I mean, are the Coens involved in 'Fargo?' Let's just say I've probably had more conversations with Ridley than I've had with Joel and Ethan," Hawley shared during a profile interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "Scott Free [Productions] is producing 'Alien,' and Ridley is making two or three movies a year is basically how that's working. I mean, Ridley has been an amazing collaborator to the degree that I can pick his brain about all of his thoughts, processes, decisions, and the things that he's learned. And I try to keep him [in the loop] and send him material so that he feels respected and included. But also, he's doing his thing."

"We're all just waiting for the strike, and it will end. The plan right now is to go back in January and be shooting in February, and looks like shoot until July or so, which puts the air date somewhere in the first half of '25 [2025]," Hawley shared with The Wrap earlier this month regarding how the production schedule is looking at this point. And while he was able to get some filming done, it sounds like there's still a good amount to be done. "I was able to complete filming most of the first hour. That said, I wasn't able to film anything with my star. So I still have the bulk of the show to film, and we have seven more hours to shoot," Hawley added. "I certainly would have loved to get the show in front of people as quickly as possible."

"It's very exciting that I get this opportunity, with films like 'Fargo' or 'Alien,' to live within the world that was created by these directors and storytellers. It raises the hair on the back of your neck in a good way to walk onto a set where you feel like you're on the [USCSS] 'Nostromo,'" Hawley shared, making a point of noting that the series itself does not take place on the famed ship but involves sets inspired by the look of it. "You're like, 'Oh my god, I'm in the movie.'" Sydney Chandler (Pistol, Sugar) was officially confirmed for the female lead role, with Alex Lawther (The End of the F*cking World) reportedly cast as the male lead (a soldier named CJ). In addition, it was reported that Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror) had joined the cast in the role of Boy Kavalier, a CEO; Essie Davis (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, The Babadook, Babyteeth) as Dame Silvia, and Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger) as Slightly – with Kit Young (Netflix's Shadow and Bone) reported to have joined the cast in August of this year.

In an interview with Vanity Fair from Summer 2021, Hawley offered some early insight into the themes that the series will be taking a deep dive into:

Hawley's Getting Inspiration from The Past: "What's next for me, it looks like, is [an] Alien series for FX, taking on that franchise and those amazing films by Ridley Scott and James Cameron and David Fincher. Those are great monster movies, but they're not just monster movies. They're about humanity trapped between our primordial, parasitic past and our artificial intelligence future—and they're both trying to kill us. Here you have human beings and they can't go forward and they can't go back. So I find that really interesting."

This Not a "Ripley Story" & Things Are Going To Open Up A Bit: "It's not a Ripley story. She's one of the great characters of all time, and I think the story has been told pretty perfectly, and I don't want to mess with it. It's a story that's set on Earth also. The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a spaceship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of 'What happens if you can't contain it?' are more immediate."

Hawley Looks to Continue the Films' "Inequality" Themes: "You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how '70s a movie it is, and how it's really this blue-collar space-trucker world in which Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are basically 'Waiting for Godot.' They're like Samuel Beckett characters, ordered to go to a place by a faceless nameless corporation. The second movie is such an '80s movie, but it's still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work."

For Hawley, That Means a Focus on the Dangers Human Represent as Well as Aliens: "In mine, you're also going to see the people who are sending them. So 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? There's that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser where she says, 'I don't know which species is worse. At least they don't fuck each other over for a percentage.'"

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