Battle: Los Angeles follows one Marine platoon's encounter in the battle against an alien invasion on the streets of Los Angeles. Aaron Eckhart will play the platoon leader. It will be directed by South African-born Jonathan Liebesman (The Killing Room, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) and based on a spec screenplay by Chris Bertolini (General’s Daughter).

Aaron Eckhart – action hero? It must be the chin . . .

The 40-year-old Eckhart has come a long way since he feared being typecast as a misogynist psychopath in The Company in Men back in 1997. Why, this year he played an, um, vengeful psychopath in The Dark Knight (Two Face).

Anyway, it sounds all very Cloverfield (or Aliens set in L.A. if you’re an older cineaste), but we just looove that title. Very, very B-movie. Sounds like something John Carpenter would have directed in his down-on-his-luck straight-to-video days. Come to think of it, what did happen to Carpenter? Come back, Mr. Carpenter, all is forgiven and we have a script for you!

In case you were wondering what John Carpenter is doing nowadays, he is actually currently working on Scared Straight starring Nicolas Cage (then again, Cage stars in everything nowadays). The movie appears to be a remake of Con Air basically. IMDb.com describes the plot as follows: "As part of the crime-prevention program Scared Straight, a governor's delinquent son is sent to prison for what's to be a short period of time. While behind bars, however, the kid is taken hostage during a riot, forcing a lifer (Cage) to come to his aid." The movie is scheduled for 2009. Carpenter also has two horror movies in the pipeline (obviously), namely LA Gothic (2008) and The Prince (2010).