Deadline reports that Noah Hawley‘s Alien series, which is being produced by FX, is set to resume filming early next year on location in Thailand. Hawley told the publication that he intended to head out to Southeast Asia in the first part of the year while attending the Season 5 premiere of his series Fargo. Production on the series had ground to a halt in late August due to the effects of the SAG-AFTRA strike, following a July start. During the downtime, sets continued to be built meaning the production is good to go. Writing is also going well, as Hawley told Collider‘s Christina Radish, with his process taking on a less structured shape:
“What we do is we get the writers in a room and we’ve got the whiteboards and we start big picture. We start to write stuff in, like “Episode five, this might happen.” We get a loose structure to it and a sense of, “All right, this is the episode where this needs to happen.” And then, the writing process allows more discovery and allows the characters to live on the page in a way that doesn’t stifle the creativity. That said, in order to make things feel random and have coincidence and those real-life elements that we have, you do have to plan that pretty profoundly, but within that, I like to leave room to discover.”
The scripts for the Alien series were finalised prior to the WGA strike called in May. The series, which is executive produced by franchise creator Ridley Scott, unfolds in a timeframe predating Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and marks the franchise’s first narrative set on Earth, approximately 70 years in the future.Sydney Chandler leads the cast, accompanied by Alex Lawther as CJ, a soldier, Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, a CEO, Essie Davis as Dame Silvia, and Adarsh Gourav as Slightly. Kit Young portrays a character named Tootles. Production commenced in July, excluding SAG-AFTRA member Chandler, who wasn’t able to participate as a result of the strike. Filming continued for over a month with the remaining cast, who were members associated with the British trade union, Equity, before stopping as well.
It’s not the only Alien project on the horizon for the folks at 20th Century Studios, or Disney, if you prefer. Filmmaker Fede Alvarez is currently working on a feature film set in the Alien universe which is set for theatrical release on August 14 next year. That movie will star Cailee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, Archie Renaux, David Jonsson, Aileen Wu and Spike Fearn and will see the up-and-coming ensemble terrorised — as one would expect — by a Xenomorph.
Where Can You Watch the ‘Alien’ Movies?
Alien (1979), Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, and AVP: Alien vs. Predator are available to stream on Hulu. Aliens is available on Max, and will be released on 4K and Blu-ray early next year. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is available to stream on Starz. The prequel films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are available to rent or buy on most VOD platforms.
via Collider