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ANGEL’s Tim Minear Prepares Potential New 20-Years-Later ALIEN NATION Series For SyFy!!
I am – Hercules!!
Writer-producer-director Tim Minear, a veteran of sci-fi shows (“Firefly,” “Dollhouse”) and cop shows (“The Inside”) and sci-fi cop shows (“The X-Files”), is gearing up a new version of the sci-fi cop show “Alien Nation” for SyFy (formerly the SciFi Channel).
Unlike the movie and prior TV series, set three years after the extraterrestrial “newcomers” arrived on Earth, Minear’s proposed series will be set about 20 years after the aliens touched down.
From Wednesday morning’s Variety:
By the time the show begins, some time in the 2020s, the alien population has multiplied from a few thousand to 3.5 million. And much of the "newcomers" live their own segregated existence, in what Minear compares to the North African ghettos in France.
The lesson here apparently is newcomers breed like tribbles.
Minear tells AICN the new project “might” feature an alien cop named Sam Francisco, as the movie and prior series did.
Find Variety’s story on the matter here.
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Readers Talkback
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This is the last property I'd ever expect to make a comeback. Then again, I wasn't ever much of a fan, in the first place.
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And just like with V, I would have preferred a continuation of the original plot/characters instead of "rebooting" the whole concept. Ugh.
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But then, most things will be better than this.
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And honestly, I did not expect to write that after reading the tagline. I liked the idea of the ALIEN NATION film better than the execution, and what little I saw of the series didn't really leave an impression. But this is the sort of source material that I think can benefit from an overhaul like what Minear is proposing. I have higher hopes for this sort of "reboot" than I do for the upcoming V remake. It would be nice to have some worthwhile science fiction on TV.
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In fact, that might have been the earliest time I was sorely disappointed by a show's cancellation. I know it's stupid, but that pilot episode plot about the monster hidden inside the Newcomers scared the SHIT out of me at the time. Christ, what a pussy I was then...<BR><BR>Anyways, if this is set 20 years later, why not bring back some of the original show's cast?
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That's pretty damn impressive for a low-rated scifi cult tv show on FOX! Other scifi shows with huge fan follows never got tv movies after their cancellation. Not Quantum Leap... not Angel... not anything that I can recall, EXCEPT Alien Nation. For some reason Alien Nation got plenty of bonus attention well into the 90s. The last tv movie aired in 1997, which really doesn't feel that long ago to me, so I don't understand why this proposed new series can't just pick up where everything left off at 10 or 15 years later with as much of the original cast as they can get. Yet another rebooted concept of a movie/tv series just doesn't interest me.
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I thought the movie was decent and the original show was cute and had a good concept behind it. Seeing AN updated would be interesting. And I'd love to see Minear return to smart sci-fi. Sorry, SyFy. I'll never get used to that stupid change.
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I thought Tim and Whedon had entered into some sort of diabolic agreement with Satan's broadcaster of choice<br />Glad to see this isn't the case...maybe this time, he'll get a series that's allowed to run. I'm still annoyed that DRIVE got cancelled...that show had promise. AND Captain Tightpants.
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As good an idea as any that gets a greenlight.
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has something to do with this. the whole vampires/aliens-as-gays/minorities metaphor is similar, no?
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As opposed to a total reboot. If it's 20 years later you can do whatever you want anyway, and then you're also not ignoring the history. Just have George or Sikes make a cameo or 2.
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This is going to sound like all kinds of philistinism, but fuck it: <br><br> I'm burnt out on mirrors being held up to society and the human condition. (All right Hollywood, I get it -- we suck. Well, okay, we suck, but with occasional flickerings of beauty, compassion, and transcendence. But *mainly* we suck.) <br><br> I know I getting way ahead of things here when it comes to this project, but with ALIEN NATION, I feel a lecture coming on. And although BATTLESTAR GALACTICA kept me rapt for a good long time, right now, I'm just not in the mood for that kind of thing.
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How can anyone look forward to District 9 knowing at the same time it's a comlete rip-off of Alien Nation. I guess intellectual property just doesn't matter to some people. <p> I think it would be wise to not ignore the original movie & series. Still set it in the same world. Just move the timeframe forward like they're doing. I hope they don't erase the past. Like JediRob says.
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Kenneth Johnson is having a good year... first V, now Alien Nation.
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It's been about 20 years since the movie, so why reboot to a point in time that is exactly where the series would be at this point? <p> With a population of 3.5 million, it should be easy to find new stories and characters in the same universe as George and Cykes.
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Recent projections of Muslim birth and migration rates has suggested that in 20 years they will be nearing the primary religion in a lot of Western countries. Sounds like this show could be tackling that in a way that cannot directly be accused of being racist.
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the aliens required a third party rare type of male to get pregnant, so I imagine they couldn't increase their population that quickly.
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That one was a bit of a reach, even by the Herc Hyperbole meter. Although, I guess he couldn't really do the "Sci-Fi Cop Shows" punchline afterward, without the using it as a lead-in.
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did the unaired episodes of Drive every surface anywhere?
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It'd be great if they could cast some of the familiar faces. <p> What ever happened to Terri Treas, who played Cathy? Does anyone know if she aged well at all?
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love the idea
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...this has a chance, but given the new "SyFy", approach I'm not hopeful. Again, are all new ideas gone from Hollywood? C'mon, Tim, we'd rather see something original from you.
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About the only thing I can think of are Alien/Human hybrids, like Sikes potential child. <p> The movies pretty much dragged out every angle the show didn't.
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and District Nine: The Series. I never thought I'd say this, but the time have actually come when we have TOO many aliens on our movie and TV screens. I'm sick of aliens...come up with something else to milk the hell out of, Hollywood...
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WTF, please hire him back.
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I'm just sayin'.
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Being the Whedonite that I am, I certainly consider Tim Minear worthy of stepping into Ken Johnson's shoes. But I hope they use some of the original cast such as Gary Graham and Eric Pierpoint. It'd be cool to have their characters be the older mentors to a new generation. I used to watch the series when it alongside 21 Jump Street on Fox. I always liked it and its spinoff TV movies when I was growing up and still feel it was a precursor to some of the better sci-fi that would later come along, like Firefly and the Holy Galactica.
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...as 'District 9' seems (to me at least) to be taken from/built around the same basic idea as the original 'Alien Nation' movie/tv series/movies, so if 'District 9' is a success Syfy can attempt to milk that success by producing their own alien immigration series with something of a built-in audience and no real worries of copyright (trademark?) problems. Setting the series in modern times should make the show no more expensive (not including prosthesis - is that the correct word/spelling?) to produce (I'm guessing) than the average episode of 'Burn Notice','In Plain Sight', or 'Royal Pains', and possibly less expensive than the 'Stargate' franchise. (Yes, I just realized I'm writing the obvious. I'm an idiot.)
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the series was crap, the movie was crap. the follow up is unnessary
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July 1, 2009, 12:20 p.m. CST
"I'm burnt out on mirrors being held up to society and the human
by oisin5199
yeah, fuck the whole purpose of contemporary literature and science fiction. No more of that!
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Finally something new and original. Wait, what?
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that maybe these thumb-dicks like Wampa1 and NielF post the same thing over and over because they're just caught up in the remake trend. Discuss.
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Sam Juan Capistrano <br> Sam Luis Obispo <br> Dallas Ft Worth <br> Detective Reno Nevada?
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I don't remember it all that well, but I remember thinking it was awesome.
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and said hey...that looks like Alien Nation, let's make a new alien nation just like that trailer
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Glad to see you're on board! <br><br> But I think you might have missed my point; but that's okay, I don't think I made it very well. It's not that I'm against holding a mirror up to society and the human condition per se. I'm against holding a mirror up to society and the human condition to the extent that "holding a mirror up to society and the human condition" is actually a euphamism for exercising (but never exorcising) liberal guilt. I'm ready entertainment with a little more self-esteem. At least for this week. Ask me again next Tuesday and I might feel a little different.
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Never actually watched The Inside (I remember it getting terrible reviews), but I still constantly quote Peter Coyote's breathlessly dramatic line from the commercials, "That girl has a gift FORGED in pain."
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Love Mr. Minear, but "aliens with weird headS" syndrome just turns me off and makes it impossible for me to take the show seriously. It was like that for Star Trek and every other show that's done it. Maybe that's why Firefly and BSG turned out so well-- no prosthetic ears.
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this sounds pretty cool. Tim Minear has an excellent track record and since this show won't be on fox, there's a chance we'll get to see more than 4 episodes of it too. The original alien nation movie and show were pretty good and, if I remember correctly, ran in pretty heavy rotation on the SciFi channel back before they aired much original programming.
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A sequel series to the movie OR the tv series is welcome as far as I'm concerned (although I prefer to think of both as seperate entities). The movie was a great '80's scifi, and the series was a brilliantly fucked up slice of tv. A sequel set this far down the line could have real potential.
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Where all of SyFy's shows are filmed! With their stupid, fucking foreign casts! Hire some real American actors, you stupid fucks!!
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It wasn't ever something that I considered all that good. They could do an alright job with it I suppose, but it's not something that excites me. How about a series based on They Live. Or even better, something original.
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and you will have a big hit. I always thought it was funny how he called them potato heads off camera.
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Now I'm three days late to the party... <p> Oh well...Color me intrigued as I sincerely adored the movie and the tv series. <p> Maybe than can even bring back David Faustino as the one Tenctonese who inexplicably had facial hair!
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Everyone watched it, but I thought it was just too heavy handed. Nice concept, but it was just too weird even for me.
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... to be Kenneth Johnson this year! First he tried to re-launch "V" (his by far best acheivment) with a 20-years later follow up... That gets hijacked and retooled from the bottom up. <p> <p> Then his other series, which the guy clearly put a lot into, gets taken up by someone else. <p> <p> Never really cared for Alien Nation, as someone above said, it could be very heavy handed at times. But that's also true of his original "V" (which I still love), but man... Guess he's just gonna have to set back and watch other folks run with all his ideas! <p> <p> (That said, anyone read "'V': The Second Generation"? His intended 'proper' sequel to the original miniseries? Fuck - it ain't good, sad to say.
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Great idea! But yes, even better, something original please? It can't be THAT hard to come up with a new alien invasion pitch, for crying out loud.
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Between the God-Awful 'Inside', 'Drive', and the half-assed 'Dollhouse', I just don't get enthused when I see his name anymore.
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Even the five TV movies were quite decent. Most of the cast is still acting, so I'd love to see as many of them back as possible. Sean Six (who played Buck) never did anything after Alien Nation (or before, actually), and Terri Treas (Cathy) hasn't worked since the last Alien Nation movie. (She's a bit of a larger woman now, hehe.) Lauren Woodland, who played little daughter Emily, is a KNOCKOUT now. (Look at the pics on her IMDB page. WOW. Let her be the new star.) :) It's neat how well the cast gets along, too -- if you watch the little get together hangout session of the cast (it's a DVD extra on the tv movie collection, I think), they're all really funny and have great chemistry off-set, too.
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