‘Taken’ Director Attached to Alien Invasion Film ‘Earth Defense Force’

Have you ever noticed how certain types of movies tend to come out at the same time (such as Dante’s Peak and Volcano or Armageddon and Deep Impact)? This isn’t a fluke. Hollywood filmmaking is about making money first and foremost, which is why studios release similar films to try and anticipate popular trends.

Currently, the trend that seems to be sweeping Hollywood is alien invasion. Not including Skyline, which is in theaters now, or the canceled Roland Emmerich film The Zone, next year will see multiple alien invasion movies, including Cowboys & Aliens, Battle: Los Angeles, and Battleship. Now, we can add one more alien invasion film to that list: Earth Defense Force, or EDF.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Pierre Morel (Taken) is attached to direct the movie, which, as the name implies, focuses on an effort to protect Earth from an invading force of alien attackers. The film is being produced by Sam Raimi and Bill Block and will be distributed by Warner Bros.

THR writes that Morel turned his attention to EDF after Universal passed on his pitch for Ouija. Check below for a brief (and we mean brief) description of the project.

“EDF is set after three alien fighters attack the planet, leaving countries humiliated. The governments of Earth then race to create a space fighting force in preparation for a second attack by an approaching alien horde.”

There’s nothing wrong with a good sci-fi movie, and Pierre Morel is a more than competent director, so on the surface this should be good news. However, something just doesn’t sit right with the fact that this is yet another alien invasion movie. There’s also the fact that EDF‘s plot sounds a lot like Year 12 and/or Falling Skies, two upcoming projects (a movie and TV show, respectively) set in the aftermath of an alien invasion.

Will audiences eventually tire of seeing aliens destroy the world’s major cities? Maybe, maybe not. In either case, this news doesn’t inspire much confidence that Hollywood will be abandoning this trend anytime soon.

Perhaps I’m being cynical, though. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, I still enjoy Independence Day when it’s on, and that may be the most formulaic of all modern invasion movies. What do you think of a Pierre Morel-directed alien invasion film?

Source: THR

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The Asylum Mimics an Alien Invasion in ‘Battle of Los Angeles’

If you are a fan of the SyFy channel and cheesy sci-fi films, then you have no doubt been subjected to at least one film produced by The Asylum.

Outside of the pornography industry, The Asylum studios have probably produced more direct-to-video films than any other studio in existence. Since 1992, they have produced and distributed 190 films and NONE of them have ever seen the inside of a movie theater on opening day. Yet, just about every sci-fi movie fan has heard of them and watched at least one Asylum film.

Whenever a major studio is preparing to release a huge blockbuster film, The Asylum will inevitably beat them to the punch with their own “mock-buster” – a movie that is similar in style, story and even title, yet different enough to keep them out of legal trouble.  The copycat studio now has their sights set on the upcoming alien invasion flick Battle: Los Angeles with their own offering – direct-to-video of course – Battle of Los Angeles.

Like most of their previous films, Battle of Los Angeles will star a couple of former big name entertainers who audiences thought had dropped off the map. In Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus it was Lorenzo Lamas (Snake Eater) and Debbi Gibson. In Transmorphers: Fall of Man it was Bruce Boxleitner (TRON: Legacy) and in The Day the Earth Stopped is was Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club).

For Battle of Los Angeles director Mark Atkins (Dragonquest) was able to procure the acting talents of Nia Peeples and Kel Mitchell. Peeples can usually be seen acting overly dramatic in the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, while most people will remember Mitchell as one half of the once popular Nickelodeon show Kenan & Kel. The film also stars Asylum film constant Stephen Blackehart, who can also be seen next year in James Gunn’s Super.

The synopsis for Battle of Los Angeles differs slightly from Battle: Los Angeles:

Battle of Los Angeles takes place in present day, almost 70 years after the failed attack on Earth in February 1942. Karla (Nia Peeples) is an officer with a super secret fighting force created to combat the threat of alien invasion. Lt. Tyler Laughlin (Kel Mitchell) is an Air National Guardsman who is reluctantly recruited to battle the extraterrestrial threat.

No trailer for Battle of Los Angeles has been released, but there are several production stills to look at below. You can see the rest on The Asylum’s official Flickr stream:

I certainly do not have high hopes that Battle of Los Angeles is going to be a very “good” film but I will still be in front of my TV watching every minute of it with my buddies. To maximize your enjoyment while watching a film made by The Asylum, it is highly recommended to bring along a group of friends.

Battle of Los Angeles comes to video and VOD February 22nd, 2011.

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Alien Invasion Pic ‘Year 12′ Snags A Director

Extraterrestrials seem desperate to conquer the tiny speck of rock in the universe that we call Earth and they’ll be at it again in the flick Year 12, which now has a director in former photographer Fredrik Bond.

What separates Year 12 from this past weekend’s alien invasion pic, Skyline, and the upcoming Battle: Los Angeles, as well as the comic book flick Cowboys & Aliens, is that the former takes place more than a decade after the non-Earthlings declare war against humanity.

Edward Ricourt penned the spec script for Year 12, which The Wrap reports as being set twelve years after an alien invasion of Earth. The plot of the film itself revolves around “an underwater uranium miner who is recruited by the human resistance to smuggle uranium in his blood so they can use it to blow up the alien mothership.” Give the humans in Year 12 credit – that does sound like more of a fail-safe plan than uploading a PC virus into the extraterrestrials’ communications network, in the hopes that they haven’t installed AVG (a la Independence Day).

The sci-fi action flick is being produced by Joe Roth, the man behind Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, as well as the upcoming fairy tale retelling, Snow White and the Huntsman. Bond is also attached to direct an English-language version of the cult Korean flick, The Host, though we’ll be crossing our fingers in the hopes that that remake won’t come to pass.

Aliens drastically reduce the value of L.A. real estate in 'Skyline'.

With so many upcoming movies about humans doing battle with otherworldly beings due to arrive over the next year, moviegoers might be quite tired of seeing flying saucers lay waste to civilization by the time Year 12 hits theaters. Add to that the fact that Bond is a novice at helming feature films and it’s difficult to not suspect that this will be one alien invasion flick that comes and goes with little fanfare.

The premise for Year 12 is interesting since it takes place in a post-invasion world where humans must struggle to survive amidst a devastated landscape (as opposed to being another run-of-the-mill “aliens invade/people fight back” flick). Perhaps the film will focus in part on the nature of human existence in a world laid to ruin by monsters, a la The Walking Dead?

Do you think the premise for Year 12 has potential? Sound off in the comments section below.

Source: The Wrap

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