In homage to the original, 'Alien: Earth' made a 64-minute 'Alien' movie. Here's how

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Dropping a tribute to Ridley Scott’s 1979 “Alien” halfway through his franchise-expanding series wasn’t easy.But Noah Hawley just had to do it.“The show was already a huge lift, and then to sort of make a movie in the middle of it was a challenge for everyone,” says the “Alien: Earth” showrunner, who wrote and directed the episode “In Space, No One ...”“I was trying to do New Alien, and then I thought, I can’t really pass up the opportunity to do my own trapped-on-a-spaceship ‘Alien’ show,” Hawley adds.

“If you look at the franchise, you have some of the greatest directors of all time: Ridley, James Cameron, David Fincher.I wanted to throw my hat in the ring and play in the classic waters as well.”Set two years before the original film, “Alien: Earth” mostly unfolds on our home planet, which has been carved into five giant tech companies’ spheres of influence.

Complications commence when a space research vessel smashes into Prodigy Corp.-controlled Bangkok.The wrecked Maginot is owned by Weyland-Yutani, the same group that operates the tug hauler Nostromo on which “Alien” unfolds.Glimpsed in “Alien: Earth’s” first episode, the Maginot had to be fully fitted out for Episode 5’s flashback to the onboard horror that preceded the crash-landing.Along with such franchise tropes as face-huggers and rampaging xenomorphs, ship design was the key area where homage overtook the series’ emphasis on new locations, lifeforms and themes.“I thought it was important that the Maginot and the Nostromo be of the same generation of ships,” says Hawley, who has ample experience referencing a classic film with his “Fargo” series.

“That mess hall is as close to an exact copy as we can make it.The bridge is almost exact.

The Mother communications room was expanded a bit to put that door in the floor for a gag.Otherwise, the idea is you wa...