Yesterday saw the trailer release of “The Bikeriders,” a motorcycle gang drama feature starring Austin Butler and Tom Hardy which hails from celebrated filmmaker Jeff Nichols (“Take Shelter,” “Mud”)
The project marks the long-awaited return to filmmaking of Nichols who last helmed “Loving” back in 2016. Almost a decade ago came the news that he was in talks to helm the “Aquaman” movie at Warner Bros. Pictures.
Things never progressed much beyond those early talks, with James Wan ultimately helming the “Aquaman” movie he wanted to make which released back in 2018. It still leaves the lingering question though of what kind of “Aquaman” did Nichols want to do?
Speaking with Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Playlist) this week, Nichols spoke about his pitch and how it wasn’t like the film we got:
“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 time telling some other ones.”
Nichols got a lot further on his remake of 1988’s sci-fi racial allegory buddy cop thriller “Alien Nation”. He says that’s a project he spent years on and it broke his heart a bit, but he’s not giving up just yet:
“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. 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 adds he’s not really interested in IP properties anymore. His “The Bikeriders” opens in theaters on December 1st.
