Stellar, Alta Global prep alien abduction series

Bryce and Jackie Zabel’s Stellar Productions has teamed up with newly formed LA-based production and management firm Alta Global Media for a series based on a supposed alien abduction case from 1961.

Captured will coincide with the 60th anniversary next year of the event, in which US couple Betty and Barney Hill claimed they were abducted by a UFO.

It will be based on the 2007 non-fiction book Captured! The Betty & Barney Hill UFO Experience: The True Story of the World’s First Documented Alien Abduction by nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman and the Hills’ niece, Kathleen Marden.

The book, under option by Stellar Productions, has been updated for a 2021 re-release.

Bryce and Jackie Zabel will lead a diverse writers’ room for the TV series, which will place the cosmic events in context of both the US’s struggle over race relations – the Hills were an interracial couple – and Cold War paranoia of JFK’s New Frontier.

“I was fascinated by Zabel’s take on this extraordinary story as it represents the convergence of the Civil Rights and Cold War eras and the first reported alien abduction,” said Steve Adams, founder of Alta Global Media.

“These elements not only lend themselves to a fascinating look at America, but also offer a startling counterpoint with Barney’s observation that while America judged and oppressed him on the basis of his skin colour, aliens saw him as only human.”

Jackie Zabel added: “Our meetings with Steve Adams convinced all of us that the right expression of this powerful content is a TV series where the larger canvas allows us to see Barney and Betty not only as abduction victims but also as heroes in the Civil Rights movement.

“The audience has never been more receptive to hearing the story of both their marriage and their passion for equality, and the larger TV canvas will allow us to finally do justice to the complete picture, including a re-staging of the pivotal March on Washington.”