Get excited, UFO fans. It looks like we’re getting a television show about aliens! USA network has just picked up a project being developed by Gary Dauberman called The Terrestrial.
Deadline reports that the show is about a schizophrenic man who has to confront his past after his teenage daughter goes missing. The man is fairly certain that the individuals who took his daughter are the same ones who abducted him ten years ago. Who were his abductors? You guessed it:
Though there isn’t much beyond that little blurb about the plot, but the show does certainly have a great deal of potential. Gary Dauberman, the show’s executive producer, has most recently worked on writing the script for the sequel to The Conjuring, Annabelle. He also wrote the upcoming New Line Cinema production, Crawlspace, and done production work for other films like Nightmare on Elm Street and Final Destination. So Dauberman certainly is experienced in working in the weird, science fiction/horror genre.
It is interesting to see USA pick up this show. While USA network has done other science fiction shows in the past like The 4400 and Dead Zone, The Terrestrial seems to be a bit of a break in their normal programming. USA’s bread and butter tends to be in the more character-driven stories like Royal Pain, Suits, Covert Affairs, and Psych, so it will be interesting to watch the network evolve as the bring science fiction and horror titles into the fold.
USA has recently pushed to get more alien-related programming. They attempted to bring the show The Horizon to the small screen, but that project did not end up going forward. USA is currently filming a pilot that from Carlton Cuse and Ryan Condal called Colony. Colony will tell the story of an alien occupation of earth--the show will be set in Los Angeles. I’m very curious to see if both Colony and The Terrestrial will find success at USA.
As USA continues to grow and evolve, let’s hope they can continue to support new and exciting projects like The Terrestrial and Colony. It will be interesting to see what USA does in the coming months as these shows continue to move forward. It seems like the network is trying to jump on audiences that have gravitated towards shows like The Strain, The Walking Dead, and Helix, though it seems both Colony and The Terrestrial will be a bit more of a thriller with extraterrestrials thriller rather than another horror television show with aliens.
I’m excited to see what will come from USA, and I’m excited to learn more about The Terrestrial. We can certainly use a few more aliens on our televisions, and it looks like USA is really pushing to bring that to us. We’ll keep you posted as news develops on this new show.
