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Noah Wyle Cast in Steven Spielberg’s Alien Invasion Television Pilot

Posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta

spielbergwyle

At the upfronts last month, TNT announced that they had ordered a piliot for a new sci-fi alien invasion television series executive produced by Steven Spielberg. Scirpted by Academy Award-nominated Saving Private Ryan scribe Robert Rodat, and based on an idea co-conceived with Spielberg, the series would be set six months after aliens decimated mankind.

Entertainment Weekly has now learned that Spielberg is persuing Noah Wyle (ER, Donnie Darko) to star as the leader of a ragtag group of survivors who “must fight for their survival and maintain their humanity.” Wyle is good as the like-able everyman, and I can easily imagine him as a leader. The idea sounds great, but I wonder how it will translate with a tv-budget.

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  • Definitely sounds like a cool concept but will the show be able to believably create a world in which the audience feels that they are viewing a ruined mankind because of intrusive/violent invaders.

    Will this all be possible under t.v budgets as you mentioned? At least knowing that Spielberg and Robert Rodat are involved does bring credibility to the project. I'll definitely keep an eye out on this one, it can either turn into a mundane alien vs human cliche story or something far more expansive and thought out that will hopefully add a worthwhile television show to tune into.
  • Definitely sounds like a cool concept but will the show be able to believably create a world in which the audience feels that they are viewing a ruined mankind because of intrusive/violent invaders.

    Will this all be possible under t.v budgets as you mentioned? At least knowing that Spielberg and Robert Rodat are involved does bring credibility to the project. I'll definitely keep an eye out on this one, it can either turn into a mundane alien vs human cliche story or something far more expansive and thought out that will hopefully add a worthwhile television show to tune into.
  • Hopefully, there will be a scene where Wyle grills an alien leader with, "Are you a virgin?"
  • haha... I like that
  • jason B
    'taken' was fantastic, and i think the generation spanning story they had was probably pretty expensive. i really can't see much to worry about yet, and i'd always worry about content over cost. what we don't see can be just as threatening as the things we do. FX, would probably be the biggest drain on the wallet for this one, but if i know my spielberg, i'd bet the aliens will be more of a lurking presence, with the occasional all out brawl.

    TNT is probably needing to compete with AMC, who has pumped up basic cable series quality & production value as of late. they could make this a franchise player and i don't see them being cheap with all that's at stake.
  • Lawdog
    Actually, it was AMC who needed to kick it up a notch to compete with TNT and USA. They have certainly done that so now it's TNT's turn.

    Noah Wiley did a pretty good job in the Librarian movies. The only thing that let those movies down was the cheesy f/x. Having Spielberg on board should help with that, but I agree the alien presence will probably be mostly felt rather than seen.
  • Mars Attacks was a funny movie.
  • Story aside, can you guys _please_ spell check before you post stories? It's really not that hard.


    @ Quintushalls

    Yes, Mars Attacks was amazing. In-fact, that movie is going up on the big screen in my office right now.
  • I do not approve of Noah Wyle.

    I approve of Spielberg tho. hehe
  • I liked Taken until Anton Yelchin left the story. I'm surprised this isn't going to HBO, which is hurting in the drama department right now, whether you agree or not. But TNT, eesh. All I associate that network with is the NBA playoffs, NaSScar, and 24 hours of a Christmas Story....
  • Lawdog
    The $$$ from Nascar and NBA is paying for this little project. If you want to bash a Turner property for not trying to put out quality entertainment, there's always TBS. Red Water, anyone? Christmas Rush ring any bells? Probably not.

    TNT tries. They may not bat 1.000, but at least they try. The Closer, Saving Grace, and Hawthorne are all quality shows. It's nice to see them trying something that actually plays to MY demographic for a change.
  • I'm confused. What the hell is going on? There's no reference to Taken at all in this article and suddenly people are talking about Taken and Anton Yelchin...Am I that high?
  • Post
    haha, right, I was thinking the same thing. Was there a TV show called Taken or something?
  • Lawdog
    Yes, executive produced by Spielberg.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289830/
  • The reason Taken is being brought up, is because Steven Spielberg produced a miniseries a few years back called, 'Taken'. It was about several generations of families who were abducted by aliens, and told a story about why the aliens were on Earth. Hence the comparison.
  • Definitely sounds like a cool concept but will the show be able to believably create a world in which the audience feels that they are viewing a ruined mankind because of intrusive/violent invaders.

    Will this all be possible under a t.v budget as you mentioned. At least knowing that Spielberg and Rodat are involved does bring credibility to the project. I'll definitely keep an eye out for this one, it can either turn into a mundane alien vs human cliche story or something far more expansive and thought out that will hopefully add a worthwhile television show to tune into.
  • It sounds like a cross between Terminator Salvation and Lost. Mmm. I'm a little hesitant.
  • First "Mexi-can", and now "like-able"? This is a bit ridiculous.
  • Wow, a reboot of V that won't suck. ;-)
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