Scott Cooper Set to Helm Gripping Roswell UFO Thriller for 20th Century Studios

Well, Scott Cooper must have finally shaken the Bruce Springsteen out of his system, because he's headed into full-on tinfoil hat territory for his next movie. After his not-so-blockbuster Springsteen flick, Cooper is now tackling one of the biggest American UFO legends out there: the Roswell incident. Yep, that Roswell – flying saucers, government cover-ups, and conspiracy theories that just don't quit. Here's what's brewing:

So What's the Deal With Roswell?

Even if you've never watched cable TV after midnight, you've probably heard at least passing mention of Roswell. But here's a quick recap, minus the fuzzy reenactments:

• June 1947: Some poor rancher named Mac Brazel stumbles across a mess of weird debris littering his property near Roswell, New Mexico.
• Not sure what to make of it, he calls the sheriff. The local Army Air Field gets involved, and—here's where things go sideways—they actually put out a press release saying they recovered a "flying disc."
• Unsurprisingly, brass at the Army almost immediately say, "Wait, wait, no, it was just a weather balloon, honest!"
• Fast forward a few decades and, surprise, surprise, turns out the debris wasn't a weather balloon or an alien spaceship. It was part of Project Mogul, a classified military project meant to spy on Soviet nuclear tests. But nobody bothered to tell the public that for years.
• The real wild theories? Those took off in the late '70s, when Jesse Marcel (the officer first on the scene back in the day) gave an interview saying he always thought that wreckage was "not of this Earth." After that, the alien hype machine kicked into overdrive: unbreakable metal, hieroglyphs, and whispers about little green bodies.
• And then there's Ray Santilli's infamous "Alien Autopsy" footage from the '90s—which he later admitted was fake. He still claims that he based it off real footage that mysteriously vanished. Sure, Ray.

Scott Cooper: From The Boss to the X-Files

Cooper's last movie, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, didn't make much noise at the box office—$45 million worldwide on a $55 million budget, so not exactly Born to Run. Critics were lukewarm, but our own Chris Bumbray actually found something to like, especially when it came to Jeremy Allen White's take on Springsteen. As Bumbray put it:

'While no one would say Jeremy Allen White of The Bear is a dead ringer for Springsteen, as a fan of The Boss going back to my childhood, I can say that he captures the essence of the man.
Why has Springsteen resonated so much over the years? To me, the answer has always been his authenticity — and both Deliver Me From Nowhere and White's performance have that quality.'

Honestly, maybe Cooper's just looking for a sure-fire crowdpleaser after the Springsteen gamble. And with UFOs still in the zeitgeist (see: Pentagon selfie leaks and half the History Channel's schedule), he may be onto something.

Aliens Are Back (In Theaters, At Least)

In case you hadn't noticed, UFO flicks are suddenly hot again. Steven Spielberg's got something called Disclosure Day dropping later this summer, and Joseph Kosinski (the guy behind Top Gun: Maverick) is working on another movie about, you guessed it, UFO disclosures.

Bottom line: expect a lot of government denials, shredded memos, and—if Cooper's really feeling it—a few scenes that guarantee you'll never look at weather balloons the same way again.