The last twenty years have been pretty rough for Alf. At the tail-end of the 1980s he was one of the biggest stars in America, alongside Arsenio Hall, Roseanne Barr and Dana Carvey’s impression of George Bush (though not Carvey himself). The character, an alien from the planet Melmac whose sarcasm was only matched by his insatiable hunger for domesticated cats, had the world on a string, even if he was just a puppet, but that all changed when his titular NBC sitcom ended its run in March of 1990.
Since then he’s found scant work. His last notable appearance was being namechecked in a 1995 episode of The Simpsons in which Bart sells his soul to Milhouse (who then trades the soul for Alf pogs). Normally the article would end here and we’d all chuckle over a shared rememberance of the days when The Simpsons was regularly hilarious, but thanks to Sony Pictures Animation there is so much more to discuss! Specifically, that the studio has signed a deal to revive Alf’s career by putting him in an upcoming feature film.
True to its name, the Hollywood Reporter reports:
Sony Pictures Animation has closed a deal to acquire rights to the classic 1980s sitcom ALF and will develop the property into a hybrid CG/live action feature.
Though this project is still in the very early stages the Hollywood Reporter believes that Fusco, who voiced Alf throughout the original NBC sitcom, will return to his most famous vocal role.
Plus, Alf spent a major part of his time in the original series attempting to stuff cats down his gullet. How is that supposed to work if he’s been generated by computers? Cats are hard enough to act with for flesh-and-blood humans, so we have to assume that a finicky feline must be a total nightmare for people tasked with animating a believable, fuzzy alien around their flailing, kitty rage.
