UFO movie news round-up (10 July, 2012)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Independence Day and Stargate sequels

Independence Day producer Dean Devlin has revealed that a sequel to his and director Roland Emmerich’s iconic 1996 alien invasion movie is now in early stages of development: “I can tell you that Roland and I have been working together for the first time in 11 years and we’re very excited about the idea of doing it,” Devlin told The Hollywood Reporter, but stressed that bringing their concept to the big screen will certainly pose a challenge:

“Whether or not we can make this happen, if we can get all the pieces to come together, that’s gonna be challenging. But creatively, for the very first time since we did the original, I feel we have a worthy concept, a worthy path to go.”

Asked why the sequel has taken 16 years to get off the ground, Devlin said “we only wanted to do it when we had an idea and a concept that creatively felt like it honored the first one--that it felt like an organic sequel as opposed to ‘let's just go make some more money.’”

“I feel like we got it,” said Devlin, “I think it took a long time, but I feel like we finally got something that really feels like, ‘that's worth seeing as a sequel to Independence Day.’”

For now, though, the concept is strictly under wraps.

Meanwhile Devlin and Emmerich’s other alien-themed epic, Stargate (1994) may also yet spawn a movie sequel. Asked by THR what other title from his filmography he would most like to revisit, Devlin said: “Stargate has always had this empty hole. When we made the first one, we always intended on doing part two and three, and we were prevented for years. And our hope is that we can get another chance at Stargate and tell the entire story we wanted to tell.”

Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens teaser

A teaser trailer for the motion comic of Barry Sonnenfeld and Gran Morrison’s Dominion: Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens is now online at Yahoo Screen. Sonnenfeld (Men in Black 3) and Morrison (All-Star Superman) announced their collaboration last year, promising a graphic novel that would lead to a movie.

The graphic novel is yet to emerge, but the web-based motion comic will debut on July 23, while the movie itself – the first in a proposed trilogy – is unlikely to hit cinemas until the end of next year at the earliest. For now, though, check out the teaser, as well as interviews with the creators.

Starship Troopers reboot

Yes, a Starship Troopers reboot is in the works, and no, it won’t be as splatterifically violent as Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 alien carnage classic. In fact, by the sounds of it, it will be tame as a fuzzy lapdog by comparison. “The more expensive a film is, the harder it is now to make it that violent,” the film’s producer Toby Jaffe told Empire. Jaffe, who is also part of the team behind the upcoming Total Recall remake (again, the original was an ultra-violent Verhoeven project) added:  “With [Total] Recall in particular, we made a conscious choice to keep it tonally closer to something like Minority Report. It gives the studio, and us as producers, the opportunity to reintroduce it in a new way.” Yes, in a way that is far more profitable. A PG-13 will likely gross twice as much as an ‘R’ rated movie.

Interestingly, and perhaps slightly worryingly, Jaffe also noted that: “Verhoeven made his movie a critique of fascism, whereas Heinlein [author of the source material] was writing from the perspective of someone who had served in World War II. Y' know, one man's fascism is another man’s patriotism...” Let’s hope that doesn’t signal a Battleship-style propaganda fest.

Storage 24

Check out this trailer for what looks like a shockingly amateurish UK alien flick currently in international cinemas. Doctor Who’s Noel Clarke plays Charlie, a bloke who finds himself trapped inside a warehouse with a carnivorous extraterrestrial. Must try harder, Britain...

Guardians of the Galaxy 

Apparently, the appearance of the alien Thanos during the end credits of The Avengers was intended to signal not an Avengers sequel, but a spin-off into another (though not entirely unrelated) Marvel narrative: Guardians of the Galaxy. A well-regarded script has been penned by Nicole Perlman and is now eagerly awaiting a director. For more on this story, head on over to ComingSoon.net.