Alexander Ullom wants to make a version of The Deer Hunter set in space, and he is completely serious about it. The director behind the acclaimed horror film It Ends has plenty on his plate already, juggling a theatrical release with a second feature he just wrapped. Yet even amid that chaos, his mind keeps drifting toward bigger, stranger territory. It turns out the endless road was only the beginning of where his imagination wants to travel next.

While It Ends proved he could turn minimalism into dread, Ullom's next dream project trades quiet horror for maximalist ambition among the stars.

Alexander Ullom confirmed his ultimate genre ambition lies far beyond horror, in a science fiction epic inspired by a classic conflict drama. He wants to reimagine that story off-world, deliberately avoiding an existing franchise like Star Wars.

“I would love to do a The Deer Hunter in space with a certain specific franchise,” he said to Variety.

He then added, “Essentially, Space Vietnam. I have very specific things that I want to speak to my generation about.”

The comment arrived near the end of a wide-ranging Variety conversation, where Ullom detailed both his largest ambitions and his desire to stay small. He mentioned wanting to grab a camcorder and shoot something minimal on the street with just two actors, free of deadlines. He also admitted to holding onto studio-sized dreams, calling the theatrical experience the last meaningful ritual left for his generation. That balance between tiny experiments and massive ambition explains why the space movie idea feels so genuine.

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While Ullom dreams of deep space, the world he built in It Ends relied on a much smaller, tighter cast.

That grounded ensemble is central to why It Ends works as well as it does. Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson, Noah Toth and Mitchell Cole anchor the film as four friends whose late-night drive spirals into an inescapable nightmare. None of them arrived as major Hollywood names, yet each brought distinct chemistry that Alexander Ullom leaned on heavily while shaping the story around real interpersonal tension rather than spectacle.

Beyond the core four, the film also features Jon Linstad, Jenny Doyle and Ian Weir in supporting roles, alongside Ullom himself in a brief on-screen appearance. Cole, notably, is a filmmaker in his own right, having written and directed his own project before joining Ullom's cast. That collaborative, low-budget spirit is exactly the foundation Ullom hopes to carry into his far bigger space-set ambition.

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What are your thoughts on Alexander Ullom's space-set The Deer Hunter dream? Let us know in the comments.