Fans of historical conspiracy theories are in for some good news: the long-running Ancient Aliens series on The History Channel is one of the latest shows to get set for a full feature-length film. While the show is perhaps best known as a popular meme online, it's also a very successful series, currently in its 16th season with over 200 episodes and more still to come, a legacy that clearly makes it a decent choice for a big-screen production according to some creators of Netflix's Cobra Kai.
According to reports, the adaptation is being worked on by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, all of whom worked together on the hit Netflix show Cobra Kai. Along with those three, Luke Ryan, who wrote Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle as well as Martian Child, will pen the script. That said, very little about the actual story or narrative of the Ancient Aliens film is known.
Ancient Aliens is a show that attempts to examine historical events through the lens of alien visitor conspiracies, and the thesis of the show is generally that aliens may have visited Earth in prehistoric times, influencing the cultures, histories, and structures that we know of today. Most episodes posit some kind of theory about who these aliens were and what they might have done on Earth and then attempts to link it to some kind of real-world historical artifact or knowledge.
As for the Ancient Aliens film, Legendary Pictures claims that it will be a "globe-spanning adventure featuring ancient sites and artifacts, confronting the theories and questions raised by the popular docuseries." That description seems to suggest that the film will be more of a documentary than a traditional narrative, but there's still not much to go on, at least until one of the people involved releases some more information about what direction the project is going in.
The use of the word "confronting" is also interesting, suggesting that the film might be placing a more critical eye on the various theories touted by the show. Indeed, many critics of 'ancient alien visitor' theories have argued that crediting extraterrestrial visitors with cultural touchstones does a disservice to our respect for and understanding of pre-historic cultures. Perhaps this project is taking the opportunity to address those concerns and re-evaluate its own place in the cultural discourse.
Regardless, the project is still in the early phases of production, and audiences likely won't be hearing much about it until some more solid foundations have been laid out. Hopefully, the project will get the opportunity to make the most of its license and hit that same itch that made the original Ancient Aliens show so popular.
Ancient Aliens airs on the History channel.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter