"Invasion", a series of alien invasion like no other?

• The sci-fi series

  Invasion

  begins airing Friday on Apple TV + with three episodes in a row, then one per week

• A story of alien invasion not told from an American or military point of view, but through different characters, all over the world

• Screenwriter David Weil explains to

  20 Minutes

  that he wanted to adapt

  HG Wells'

  War of the Worlds

  , before creating his own story with Simon Kinberg

TV and movies love stories of invasion or alien contact, from

to

to

or

. Additional and recent evidence: the two serial adaptations of the classic

by HG Wells, after the radio version of Orson Wells and the film by Steven Spielberg. However, a third series almost saw the light of day. It was the will of young American screenwriter David Weil (Hunters,

), before he crossed paths with writer, director and producer Simon Kinberg (

) and that they join forces to create their own series, soberly titled Invasion and available Friday on Apple TV + with the first three episodes, then one episode per week.

A global story, all over the world

“Usually, this kind of SF story embraces a single point of view, often Western,” explains co-creator David Weil. However, we wanted to tell a global story, to the four corners of the world. The series thus goes from a Japanese astronaut to a Syrian family in New York to a soldier on a mission in Afghanistan or a sheriff in early retirement in Oklahoma. “It was a real challenge to have five main characters, to give them time to be the heroes and heroines of their own stories,” comments David Weil. I felt like I was writing five different production pilots. But, like in Game of Thrones, they are made to meet. The series even allows itself to introduce new and important characters in the second episode, or to get rid of others.“We wanted to thwart the codes of the genre and the expectations of the public. "

How to create original "aliens"?

An approach that also applies to spaceships and the aliens themselves, which for several years and films show an increasingly generic aesthetic.

“It's indeed difficult to create something new, it took us, with the creative and special effects teams, over a year.

We started from our nightmares of children but also of adults, details the screenwriter.

Then we asked ourselves: Who are they?

What do they do ?

How do they communicate?

Do they have families?

Do they like?

These questions nourished their identity, as well as their aesthetics.

Even if I must admit that we favored the

.

Namely that the less we see them, the more they scare.

"

A metaphor for the human condition

On the screen,

does not revolutionize the wars of the worlds either, but it has the time (10 episodes) and the money (200 million dollars of budget) to pose its universe, to explore side roads, to work the mysteries, even frustrations, and turn this “invasion” into a metaphor for the human condition.

“We can all feel like aliens, aliens, in some way.

In relation to our family, our country, society ”, reflects David Weil.

You will cast

for the giant ships and belligerent aliens, but will stay for the characters, just the characters.

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