Showtime's new sci-fi series The Man Who fell to Earth isn’t a remake of the 1970s film starring David Bowie, but rather a next step in telling the story of an alien's experience on earth, executives from the series said Tuesday.
The series, which debuts April 14 on Showtime, stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Faraday, an alien who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution, according to the network. During Showtime’s Television Critics Association Winter press tour session, series executive producer Alex Kurtzman said The Man Who Fell to Earth series draws its inspiration from the 1976 Nicolas Roeg-directed film starring Bowie as well as the original Walter Tevis novel of the same name, but looks to reinterpret the themes and ideas unveiled in both projects.
"The thing that's wonderful about the questions that Mr. Tevis poses in his novel is that they are timeless," he said. "They are essential questions that humanity at every phase has to ask itself, which is how do we get to this point here, and what choices are we going to make now if we want to choose to survive? And we are obviously at a tremendous crossroads."
Ejiofor added that the perspective of the planet and humans garnered through the experiences of his alien character yields more questions than answers about the future.
“There's no real way of knowing fully what the future holds, and the perspective of this character was so interesting for that reason because he wasn't necessarily being prescriptive,” he said. “Where we are on Planet Earth, we are still on a planet that gives us so much, that is so positive for us. Where Faraday is from, that was taken for granted, and he sees some of the similarities in the human experience.”
The Man Who Fell To Earth also stars Naomie Harris, Jimmi Simpson, Rob Delaney, Sonya Cassidy, Joana Ribeiro, Annelle Olaleye, Kate Mulgrew, Clarke Peters and Bill Nighy. ■
