UFO movie news round-up (1 Jan. 2012)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Harrison Ford is to play the role of Colonel Hyram Graff in Ender's Game, a big screen adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s classic – and, until now, “unfilmable” – sci-fi novel about a future Earth under threat of invasion by a race of insectoid aliens known as 'Formics'. Set seventy years after an epic human/alien war, the story follows the character of Ender Wiggin, a young boy whose tactical genius offers hope for humanity in the face of a new Formic invasion.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ender's Game will also star Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Abigail Breslin and Ben Kingsly. Ben Hood (Rendition, X-Men: Origins) will helm the production, while Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (whose credits include Transformers and Cowboys and Aliens) will produce. Shooting begins in February and the movie will hit cinemas in March 2013.

In other news, Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor has been chosen by Marvel to direct the sequel to Thor. Plot details for Thor 2 are sketchy at present, but the first movie – which features in my ten most notable UFO movies of 2011 list – touched on various themes and ideas central to UFOlogy, including Ancient Astronauts, wormhole travel and shadowy government agents tasked with monitoring extraordinary phenomena. Incidentally, the character of Thor will also be appearing in the upcoming mega-movie The Avengers, in which he and other Marvel superheroes will be pitted against the alien menace Loki – Thor’s own brother. Thor 2 is due for release in 2013. The Avengers is released this April. View the trailer below...

Finally, the Moscow-set alien invasion movie The Darkest Hour has opened to poor reviews from critics. Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a D+, noting: “You should be rooting for the humans, but you might as well be rooting for the blobs. Most likely, though, you’ll just be rooting for the credits.” Ouch. The Wrap was no less scathing in its review, calling The Darkest Hour an “aggressively idiotic movie”, saying of its thinly sketched characters: “if these dimwits represent the hope of humanity, bring on the alien overlords.” In the same vein, The Hollywood Reporter describes The Darkest Hour as “An alien invasion flick that evidently expects dramatic shots of a depopulated Red Square to make up for a flatlining screenplay and the absence of even a single compelling character." Ouch again. For many more wince-inducing reviews of The Darkest Hour, head on over to Rotten Tomatoes.

The Darkest Hour (2011): An "aggressively idiotic movie."

'The Darkest Hour': new viral video

Silver Screen Saucers

A faux news report has hit the web ahead of the Christmas Day release of the alien invasion thriller The Darkest Hour...

'The Darkest Hour' warning signs

Silver Screen Saucers

Summit Entertainment has released four 'Warning Signs' as part of its marketing campaign for The Darkest Hour - a Moscow-set alien invasion thriller due for release in 3D and 2D on Christmas day...

The Darkest Hour stars Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachael Taylor and Joel Kinnaman and is directed by Chris Gorak.

Related posts:

'The Darkest Hour': story details, artwork revealed

'The Darkest Hour' featurette

'The Darkest Hour' featurette

 Silver Screen Saucers

Contains interviews, new footage from the movie and MINOR PLOT SPOILERS...

'Darkest' aliens to arrive this Christmas

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Summit Entertainment has just released the North American Poster for The Darkest Hour - a Moscow-set, post-apocalyptic 3-D alien invasion thriller due for release in the U.S. on Christmas Day...

Image credit: Yahoo! Movies

View the trailer here...

See also:

'The Darkest Hour': story details, artwork revealed

Trailer: 'The Darkest Hour'

The Darkest Hour is due for release in 3D and 2D on December 23, 2011.

'The Darkest Hour': story details, artwork revealed

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Artwork for The Darkest Hour. Source: Comingsoon.net

The post-apocalyptic alien-invasion movie The Darkest Hour began its publicity campaign in San Diego yesterday adjacent to Comic-Con. Crowds were shown the first trailer (expected online in the coming days), as well as stills and artwork for the movie.

Filmed on-location in Moscow, The Darkest Hour follows a group of survivors battling an invading extraterrestrial force which has already conquered most of the planet.

According to Comingsoon.net:

Artwork for The Darkest Hour. Source: Comingsoon.net

“The aliens of the film are electricity-based and tend to be invisible unless they're attacking. The one clue to knowing when they're approaching is that power returns to the immediate vicinity, leading the band of survivors to gather light bulbs to use as signals.

Though the aliens take control of the planet immediately, depleting the world's energy resources, a band of resistance fighters springs up, using scientific technology to combat the invaders. The group meets a Russian scientist (Dato Bakhtadze), who has devised a mobile form of a Faraday cage (a real-world device that prevents electricity from doing harm to an individual). In his apartment, he's even applied the principle to his cat and manages to build versions of the device for Russian freedom fighters to use in combat. (One piece of production art has a soldier on his horse, both making use of the device).

When the aliens do manage to attack, they literally shred people to pieces. Though all we see is yellow/orange energy, it's hinted that we'll learn a lot more about what the aliens look like and where they come from before the end of the film.”

The movie's story was co-written by Leslie Bohem, who wrote Spielberg's UFO miniseries, Taken (2002). It has also been revealed that the film will be released in conjunction with a spin-off comic book, which will show how the alien invasion/occupation unfolds on a global scale, beyond the confines of Moscow.

The Darkest Hour is due for release in 3D and 2D on December 23, 2011.