According to two Hollywood insiders, Whalefall and No One Will Save You filmmaker Brian Duffield is writing an Alien movie. On TV, the Alien franchise appears to be in rude, if not downright vulgar health. Showrunner Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth appeared to do decent numbers for FX and Disney, and a second season is currently ... Alien | Growing signs that Whalefall filmmaker Brian Duffield is writing a sequel
According to two Hollywood insiders, Whalefall and No One Will Save You filmmaker Brian Duffield is writing an Alien movie.
On TV, the Alien franchise appears to be in rude, if not downright vulgar health. Showrunner Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth appeared to do decent numbers for FX and Disney, and a second season is currently in the works.
Over on the cinema side of things, Alien looks a bit murkier. As we explored only last week, the franchise appears to be in limbo following the release of Alien: Romulus. A sequel once fast-tracked for production is nowhere to be seen, and there are reports that director Michael Sarnoski – replacing Romulus's Fede Alvarez – has now left the project.
Other rumours have since emerged from some fairly reliable sources. Hollywood gossip artisan Jeff Sneider recently floated the story that Brian Duffield – the filmmaker behind the excellent No One Will Save You and the upcoming Jonahcore epic, Whalefall – is quietly working on an Alien movie.
Since then, Daniel Richtman, another conquistador of Tinseltown rumours, has echoed the same story: that Duffield is writing an Alien film, and it’s currently unclear whether he’ll direct. (A hat tip to Dread Central for this one).
There’s an additional layer to all this intrigue as well. As highlighted by World Of Reel, 20th Century Studios boss Steve Asbell recently took to the hellsite known as X, quote-tweeting a post about the Duffield rumour. His additional thought was a simple, “Who?”, presumably in reference to Duffield.
Asbell will know precisely who Duffield is, given that 20th Century Studios co-produced No One Will Save You and will distribute this year’s Whalefall. The buzz surrounding the latter film – a survival thriller in which Jay Gardiner gets swallowed by a sperm whale – could be the key to all these rumours.
Earlier in June, Asbell wrote enthusiastically about Whalefall on X, calling it “one of the boldest and most original movies I’ve ever been a part of.”
Two days after that post, The Hollywood Reporter published an interview with Duffield, in which the filmmaker said, “Asbell and I are close pals now after No One Will Save You and Whalefall, and we always talk about what we want to see in a movie theatre experience.”
It’s quite possible that Asbell is so impressed with Duffield’s work on Whalefall that he’s set him to work on the Alien franchise. Asbell has a clear interest in the Alien franchise, having talked about Alien: Romulus with the enthusiasm of a film fan rather than an executive who signs cheques.
As he fast-tracked a sequel to that film in October 2024, he said, “The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film,” Asbell said. “And so I always think of it like, ‘Wow, where do people want to see them go next?’ We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them and I want to see what their story is.”
At that stage, Alvarez was still attached to co-write and direct. Could it be that Duffield has taken over? Right now, it’s all so much gossip. But with Duffield’s track record in genre filmmaking – he wrote Underwater, which is highly Alien-inspired – he could be a logical fit for the long-running franchise.
We’ll bring you more as we hear it. In the meantime, do check out No One Will Save You. It’s a the perfect, horror-infused companion piece to Disclosure Day.
