Based on Walter Tevis’ classic 1963 novel and Nicolas Roeg’s 1973 film adaptation, Showtime’s The Man Who Fell to Earth continues the story of an alien struggling with some very human questions through a new series adaptation. “The book is extraordinary in so many ways because it's a science fiction book in which the science fiction is really off to the side,” executive producer, writer, and director Alex Kurtzman said during a TCA press conference about the show. “Tevis was battling his own demons when he wrote that book. He felt a tremendous alienation and I think created the character of Thomas Jerome Newton as a kind of shadow version of himself in a way. I believe he was working out his inner demons, and that is why it's so powerful. But he managed to capture this extraordinary nuance in detail. And I would actually go a step further and say that Nicolas Roeg made a film that was in many ways an homage to the book and took a lot of things from the book but really was its own thing as well. The common denominator between both of those beautiful works is this tremendous sense of loneliness and isolation and what it means to be a human being and how we find connection with other people and what it means to find connection with other people.”
(Aimee Spinks/SHOWTIME)
A continuation of the story, the original film starred David Bowie as Thomas Jerome Newton, a character who connects the film and series. “We knew what an extraordinarily challenging casting choice it would be because there's really no way of looking at it in any other way than saying ‘Someone is stepping into David Bowie's shoes’” Kurtzman confessed. “It was tremendously important to us that we were choosing an actor who would not be doing a David Bowie impression but, in fact, was going to be bringing his own very unique soul to the character of Thomas Jerome Newton, which is separate from the human being that was David Bowie.” The answer was found in actor Bill Nighy, who steps into the iconic role. “Bill Nighy is everything you want him to be as a human being. He really is. He is dedicated, collaborative, beautiful, soulful, thoughtful. He never relents until he has dug as deep as possible to get where he needs to go. He understood fully and completely what it meant to take on this role. And I think he knew Bowie a bit, so there was a sense of honoring that relationship. And there really was nobody else that we could have imagined for it. It was perfect, right? You need a legend to step into the shoes of a legend. It's really the only way to do it.”
Playing the human who meets the titular man who fell to Earth in the series is Oscar-nominee Naomie Harris as Justin. “We felt strongly that the character of Justin had to be a woman of color because I think you can make an argument that brown women are the most vulnerable population on the planet,” executive producer and writer Jenny Lumet explained. “The clearest perception of where we live and how we live is through our most vulnerable folk. Now, this does not mean that the character of Justin is not heroic. She is, and she has incredible strength.” As the granddaughter of the legendary actress, singer, and civil rights activist Lena Horne, Jenny Lumet has a unique perspective to add to the series. “Without spoiling too much in later episodes, we address why the character of Faraday chose the skin suit that he chose… Every time there's a show with black people in it, it is one step closer to it being unremarkable, to it being a part of our fabric as opposed to something that becomes a discussion.”
Playing Faraday, the alien who leaves his dying planet only to arrive on Earth, a planet on a trajectory towards a similar fate, is Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor. “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,” Ejiofor said of his interest in taking the part. “He was just simply saying that ‘Where I'm from, from the planet that I lived in, this is what happened to us, and this is what it meant.’ Now, one on Earth can take that in any direction. You can take it as meaning that things have to change. You can take it in the direction of meaning that things don't, if you want, but his perspective is so interesting. ‘Where I'm from, our planet was destroyed, and a lot of that was destroyed by our own actions and inability to heed the warnings of our planet.’ Where we are on Planet Earth, we are still in 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. And so, for me, that was a kind of profound and interesting way to look at the issue, to look at the problems that humanity potentially faces.”
The Man Who Fell to Earth premieres with two back-to-back episodes on Sunday, April 24th at 10:00 pm on Showtime and is also now streaming on Showtime Anytime. “The idea for us was always that we would try to tell a complete story in one season,” executive producer and writer John Hlavin said of the creative process behind the series. “But to be frank with you, in the writers' room, we always talked about it as somewhat ongoing.” Designed to be a stand-alone season with the possibility of more stories in the future, Hlavin was honest about the difficulties faced while making the series, partly due to the global pandemic. “I'm incredibly proud of it, and I rarely would say this about something I've worked on. [It’s] really beautiful work, really, really meaningful work”