Do We Need More Alien Contact Films & Series?

[Kaodi]

This is tangentially related to the "Are Superhero Films Dying?" thread, though I did not think of it while reading that. The question, as the title suggest, is are we due for some prestige-tier alien content that mashes together some Arrival-level theorizing with grounded, serialized narratives about how people actual respond to the information? Have seasons that weave together lots of little events that happen over the course of weeks, months, or years, because in reality there would probably not be a single "Aha!" moment unless the aliens literally stealthed here, landed, then announced themselves to everyone at once.

Superhero films, funnily enough, feature a lot of aliens, but little in the way of "aliens are real" plot lines. Heck, the MCU could probably do with a show that did not feature any superheroes directly and was just people dealing with the everyday business of living in this crazy world. That might even be a way to get them back to telling character-driven stories.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Superhero films, funnily enough, feature a lot of aliens, but little in the way of "aliens are real" plot lines. Heck, the MCU could probably do with a show that did not feature any superheroes directly and was just people dealing with the everyday business of living in this crazy world. That might even be a way to get them back to telling character-driven stories.

Wasn't there once a rumor of an Astro City TV series? That would be a sensational idea for a TV series and probably quite a bit cheaper per episode than The Boys, as the super stuff is often at arms length for most of a given story.

 

[aco175]

Alien-type movies are cool enough. They tend to fall into near future when we finally send people into outer space-space. I tend to like the robots are killing us before the aliens are movies more.

 

[MGibster]

Well, sure. I could certainly see Netflix greenlighting this series only to cancel it two or three days after in premiers. You could do all sorts of interesting things with the premise for a relatively low price. If we're not talking about an invasion scenario, it should be inexpensive.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Nah, we need more swashbuckling space opera adventures. It can have aliens, but they shouldn't be the focus. I can't be doing with serious. I can just about tolerate Foundation, but that's enough.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I think it would be interesting to have a really realistic alien contact series. What are the policies that are actually in place? What would people actually do, how would they actually react?

 

[Kaodi]

I think it would be interesting to have a really realistic alien contact series. What are the policies that are actually in place? What would people actually do, how would they actually react?

Exactly this. Part of it would be exploring that depending on the form of contact, I would favour communications, it would end up being a nothingburger for a lot of people unless there were practical implications in consumer and industrial products. Of course, for other people they would probably go completely nuts.

 

[payn]

I want a Mass Effect series and/or movie.

 

[Yora]

Not really.

If any script writers think they have something new to say that hasn't been done a dozen times already, I am all for being pleasantly surprised.
But as with nearly all kinds of movies, we really don't need repeats of the same thing but with more cheap CGI.

I think it would be interesting to have a really realistic alien contact series. What are the policies that are actually in place? What would people actually do, how would they actually react?

Also, have aliens who are really confused and unsure what to do, because they've never done anything like that before either.

 

[Umbran]

What are the policies that are actually in place?

I would presume most of such are classified, and so aren't available to writers.

What would people actually do, how would they actually react?

The problem with this is that human reaction will be all over the map. The course of events will depend on short-term things like, "Who is the charismatic leader who gets the public's ear?" And the author has to just choose those things. Then it becomes less "How would people behave?" and more "What story does the author want to tell?"