(Left) Jeff Nichols attends the Academy’s 8th Annual Governors Awards in The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, CA, on Saturday, November 12, 2016. (Right) DC Comics character Aquaman. Photo courtesy of DC Comics.
Director Jeff Nichols is having a positive moment right now. The filmmaker, who has been behind movies including ‘Mud’, ‘Midnight Special’, ‘Loving’ and ‘Take Shelter’, is riding high on good buzz for his latest, ‘The Bikeriders’, which just launched at the Telluride Film Festival (and you can find the trailer for it here).
While he stepped away from working on developing ‘A Quiet Place’ prequel spin-off ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ to focus on the biker drama, that wasn’t his first brush with franchise filmmaking.
The infamous Sony email hack of 2014 revealed chatter about the fact that Warner Bros. was looking to have Nichols make ‘Aquaman’. Obviously, that never came to pass –– history records that James Wan took on the gig, delivered a $1 billion plus result and has the sequel, ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ awaiting release on December 20th.
And from the sounds of it, Nichols’ idea for the superhero outing probably wouldn’t have worked out as well, as he revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
“Home Is Calling”
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Nichols on ‘Aquaman’
Jason Momoa in 2018’s ‘Aquaman.’
Here’s what Nichols told podcast host Josh Horowitz about his potential ‘Aquaman’ take:
“I still have scenes from ‘Aquaman’ in my head that would’ve been good. They would’ve been quite different from the film that was made. It wasn’t ever feasible… I liked the older Aquaman, like when he had a harpoon for a hand. He was a fallen king and his son had died. He was in mourning. Obviously from this brief pitch you can see it would’ve sold hundreds of dollars’ worth of tickets! That stuff is fun to noodle on, but we got a lot of those movies now. There are a lot of stories in the world. It’s ok to spend time telling some other ones.”
But that’s far from the only big-name title he’s considered. And according to him, he may return to it…
Related Article: ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ has Been Through Three Rounds of Re-Shoots and Removed Batman Scenes
‘Alien Nation’: Past and Present
(L to R) James Caan as Matthew Sykes and Mandy Patinkin as Sam Francisco (“George”) in 1988’s ‘Alien Nation.’
When ‘Aquaman’ didn’t work out, Nichols switched back to small-scale drama with the acclaimed ‘Loving’. And with that movie giving him more attention, he was approached to work on a remake of 1988 sci-fi movie ‘Alien Nation’, which starred James Caan and Mandy Patinkin.
The thriller, which chronicled extraterrestrials living on Earth and suffering discrimination, saw a human cop (Caan) assigned a new partner, a “Newcomer” as they tackle a conspiracy among the latter’s people.
It spawned a TV spin-off and some TV movies, so naturally, Fox (and then Disney, once it bought the company) decided to have someone try a remake. That someone was Nichols, who attempted it first as a movie than a TV series.
“Prepare Yourself.”
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Here’s Nichols on that one:
On the ‘Alien Nation’ front, that was a heartbreaker. That’s one of the reasons it’s taken me so long to make another film. I spent four years on that. We were at the one-yard line. I had it cast, and we had it ready to go, but the universe didn’t want me to make that right then. That was an original story I crafted and they wanted to put the ‘Alien Nation’ title on it.
But it sounds like there is a happy ending coming down the line…
“Fortunately, that script without the title has gone over to Paramount. After the strike lifts, I can get back to work on it. It’s kind of amazing working on something for so long. I built this entire alien species and all these other things, but it also takes place in Arkansas and feels like one of my films. But it might cost a lot of money. It might be the worst experience of my life, but I’d love to make that film.”
Nichols’ ‘The Bikeriders’ heads to theaters on December 1st.
Austin Butler as Benny in 20th Century Studios’ ‘The Bikeriders’. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
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