We thought the idea of a Battleship movie was a bit baffling, as we discussed here. But Warner Bros seems keen to top the idea of getting an old board game and turning it into an alien invasion film by, er, just cutting out the middle man a little. As such, it's gone direct for the Space Invaders arcade game, the classic coin-op of blasting down wave after wave of alien attackers.

Given that there's no plot, no narrative and nothing but mindless action to the Space Invaders game, several thoughts spring to mind. Our first thought was that it had Brett Ratner written all over it. Our second thought was that Warner Bros, if it's successful in getting the rights, could do pretty much anything it wanted with the film. As long as there was some space, and some invasion, it's hardly likely to be going against the spirit of the game.

In fact, let's take that further. Would it be remiss of us to suggest that Warner Bros might already have some alien invasion movie somewhere in development hell, a project that would be given a boost by having a recognisable brand name attached to it? That's idle speculation on our part, but it'd hardly be the most surprising piece of news were it proved to be true.

The Los Angeles Times broke the story of Warner Bros' interest, and it's revealed that Mark Gordon, Jason Blum and Guymon Casady are already attached as producers to the project. All it takes now is for Taito to give it the thumbs-up, and Space Invaders The Movie is go.

It might be in good company, mind. There are movies based around Missile Command and Asteroids working their way through the Hollywood system. It'll all make for a box set at the end of it, at least... 

L A Times