J.J. Abrams has already made multiple movies about searching for people in the stars, so if there’s anyone in Hollywood who you can trust to find UFOs, it’s probably him. The director of two Star Trek and two Star Wars movies is set to produce a new documentary called UFO which will premiere on Showtime August 8.
The four-part documentary, according to Deadline, will “look at what clandestine influence the American government, lucrative private companies and the military may have in shielding the truth behind extraterrestrial phenomena to further their own agendas.” Abrams is producting with his team at Bad Robot; the series is directed by Mark Monroe and Paul Crowder.
And look, that sounds great. UFOs have obviously become a hot topic again in recent months with the government all but acknowledging that flying objects seen in the sky are completely unidentified. Reportedly, that will play a part in this documentary. But really, I’m going to hijack this post for a bit to talk about J.J. Abrams.
J.J. Abrams made two Star Wars movies. Both movies are about characters looking for devices that unlock maps to find an ancient Force user. Can you even fathom that? You’re given the chance to make not one, but two Star Wars movies. For the first one? Fine. The map idea is unique to the saga. But then you come back and you’re like, “Oh you know what? let’s do the same thing again!” What the hell is that? He didn’t even write these movies and yet they’re the same premise. Unfathomable!
I mention that because, as I said at the top, J.J. Abrams loves projects about searching for people in space — so his producing a UFO documentary obviously works. But if there’s a fucking relic that someone has to find that leads us to the UFOs I’m gonna explode.
UFO debuts on Showtime August 8. Stay tuned for a local Australian release.