J.J. Abrams Developing UFO Documentary Series for Showtime

With UFOs in the headlines now more than ever, and the US Government basically shrugging as to the validity of their existence, it's about time that Hollywood cashed in on them once again. Showtime has announced that UFO, a four-part docu-series from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot and Glen Zipper, is in the works and will air on the premium cable network later this summer. The new series will explore "our fascination with unidentified flying objects, and 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."

Mark Monroe and Paul Crowder directed the series which will also delve into the many theories about the subject matter, which has historically been the focus of powerful politicians and CEOs, while average citizens pursuing the very same truth have been ridiculed and ostracized. A co-production by Bad Robot and Zipper Bros Films, the series will air on Showtime on Sunday, August 8, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. with all four episodes available to stream beginning at midnight that same day.

A full press released on the new series describes the show as follows: "Ignited by the bombshell New York Times story in 2017 revealing that the Pentagon had been secretly tracking UFOs for years, the series examines the history of the phenomenon through cultural and political touchpoints, including shocking testimony from eyewitnesses across the country. As the conversation grows more bizarre and reaches the mainstream by virtue of credible investigations into alien encounters, UFO confronts the most enigmatic questions of all: Why do we believe what we believe? And what is the elusive truth beyond this decades long mystery?"

UFO is executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Glen Zipper, Mark Monroe and Sean Stuart along with Ben Stephenson and Rachel Rusch Rich from Bad Robot. The series is co-executive produced by Kevin Lincoln and produced by Maren Domzalski and Paul McGuire.

Though some of Abrams' previous credits as a filmmaker, Star Trek and Star Wars, would be his biggest ties to space but least we forget his 2011 film Super 8, all about a captured alien and its attempts to get its ship and get back into space (there are also some kids involved).

To prove just how mainstream the talk of UFOs have become in former President Barack Obama opened up about the subject as well, speaking about it on The Late Late Show with James Corden saying:

"The truth is that when I came into office, I asked. I was like, 'All right, is there the lab somewhere where we're keeping the alien specimens and spaceships?' They did a little bit of research and the answer was 'no.' What is true, and I'm actually being serious here, is that there is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don't know exactly what they are. We can't explain how they move, their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable pattern. I think that people still take seriously trying to investigate and figure out what that is, but I have nothing to report to you today."