After the bikers of The Bikeriders, the sci-fi film from its director Jeff Nichols?

In terms of subject matter, his view of America, and the humanism of his cinema, Jeff Nichols’ films are as diverse in appearance as they are in creating a coherent whole. After the historical drama Loving and the biker story, The Bikeriders, in theaters here from June 19, the director could turn to sci-fi.

For the second time in his career, after Midnight Special. And with a project that dates back to 2016, but has since undergone some changes: He was originally rumored to be working with Fox on an original script that the studio wanted to remake into a remake of 1991’s Immediate Future Los Angeles. But the film has paid the price of its merger with Disney, effective from 2019.

The project isn’t dead, though, and it’s currently in the offices of Paramount, for which Jeff Nichols was supposed to make Quietly – Day 1 before moving on to The Bikeriders, a two-decade-long passion.

And there will be no rights issues as the film is being reviewed now “inspired” by Immediate Future Los Angeles 1991, with a different story and characters.

The original, released in 1998, is set in the near future where extraterrestrials, now settled on Earth, are victims of discrimination. And it’s in this context that the first alien cop (Mandy Patinkin) must team up with a racist veteran (James Caan) to investigate the conspiracy.

If the project is successful, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the director keep much of the original story, as issues of racism and discrimination have already been at the center of the midnight special and – especially – love.

SF or two novels?

“I would really like this to be my next film”– said, at least, the main interested party Soon. “It says everything I want to say about humanity and the universe. It’s a big movie. Big on scale and big on heart. Believe it or not, there are aliens in it. But it’s set in Arkansas and it’s like a movie. The Boy Who Made Mud, but with aliens in it.”

But there’s another option on the table: adaptations of Cormac McCarthy’s last two novels (No Country for Old Men), “passenger” and “Stella Maris”, which follows the story of Bobby and Alicia Western, whose father worked to create the atomic bomb. And perhaps Oppenheimer’s public and critical success will give him a boost.