The Pitt
Few remember - and maybe with good reason - the end of Marvel's late-'80s experiment, the New Universe, in which a man driven mad with seemingly-unlimited power accidentally turns Pittsburgh into a radioactive crater by trying to get rid of his powers, and the world goes to hell from that point onwards: America becomes filled with irradiated monsters, nuclear war and godlike children who demand that we make war no more, or else. A weird and forgotten piece of post-Watchmen superheroics, but one that mixes old-school and new-school with an admittedly naive worldview that still may be too big for one movie.

Secret Wars
One of comics' first as-many-superheroes-at-once extravaganza, it's not just the idea of bringing the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four and random other characters (Spider-Man! The Hulk!) together to battle an army of supervillains that might make this colorful story too expensive to film, but the creation of a patchwork planet for them to fight on, along with the various alien races and/or technology that they meet along the way. Then again, the comic was created to support a 1980s toyline, and we all know how well Transformers and GI Joe have done for movie studios, so perhaps we should never say never...

Ultimatum
This year's strange superhero disaster movie killed off a number of Marvel's more popular characters, amongst them Wolverine, Thor and Doctor Doom - but only in their alternate timeline, "Ultimate" incarnations. Nonetheless, the story - in which Magneto causes all manner of "natural" disasters, destroys New York and decimates the superhero population of the planet before finally being stopped by a mix of X-Men and other superheroes - is pretty much 2012 with added superheroes, the idea of which may be the ultimate (No pun intended) high concept, but the cost of which would make most effects budgets weep.

Invasion!
DC's 1988 crossover is ID4 meets Star Wars, and then some: Different races of alien invade Earth to find out why the planet keeps producing so many superheroes, in the process destroying Australia (This is back when you could do that kind of thing without people getting upset that you've killed off an entire continent), performing genetic experiments on normal humans to see if there's some latent superhero gene (There is) and fighting a war on two fronts, as Earth's superheroes defend their planet with the help of some turncoat aliens. With a cast that's about 50% alien (And multiple types of alien, at that, with only a couple achievable with Star Trek-esque nose attachments), space battles and all manner of high-scale superheroic takes on your favorite war movies, this would be a sfx extravaganza... If anyone would ever be able to afford it.

Flex Mentallo
Flipping between "reality," imaginary worlds, time periods and everywhere in between, Flex may just be one of those unfilmable projects even before you start to think about how much it'd cost to have an army of superheroes destroy a city, combine to form a new reality that we live in, or even just have the orgy that proves Frederic Werthem right. But factor in the need to create surreal fictitious cities for the young Wally to get lost in, atomic explosions and mutations or even just costumes to match Frank Quitely's awesome fashion sense, and you're left with the kind of movie that would need Watchmen-esque precision and care, but for an even-less mainstream audience friendly story.

DC One Million
Again, just the scale of work needed to bring this story to life would make most people in charge of budgets get nervous: Taking place in two different eras (Today and the 853rd century), on multiple planets and with large-scale destruction brought about by a nano-technological virus that comes from a living robotic sun, the necessary design process alone would probably scare off movie producers before it even came to the idea of making it all look convincing. A cast of hundreds of superheroes from both eras (Including a Superman from the future who has to sparkle, just like Twilight's Edward) would just add to cost woes.

Crisis On Infinite Earths
Talking of casts of hundreds of superheroes, DC's 1985 big daddy of all superhero crossovers is the kind of thing that would have to be told in a series of movies, and even then would still be missing all manner of greatness: Requiring multiple Earths to be created just so they could be destroyed, taking place in multiple time periods - including a part of the story where the time periods merge together so we get to see World War II fighter planes fight dinosaurs - and with almost every character in the story (and there really are hundreds) a superhuman and requiring some level of ridiculous costume and special effects to be made real. While it might not be the greatest comic ever (Or even the greatest superhero comic), this might be the most perfect example of a story that is too full of ideal comic book imagination and spectacle to ever make it to the silver screen.

Emmerich told MTV that he's planning a two-film arc following the events of Independence Day. He doesn't have a script yet, but the idea is to continue the story of the original. He wouldn't elaborate on exactly what sort of foe humanity would face this time around, but it sounds like we'll be seeing an invasion of some kind:

It's always about earth and that earth gets invaded.

He also reiterated that the idea involves Will Smith and that the sequels would, like the original, focus on a "king who leads his troops into battle against an evil force, and that stays like that." So what title has Emmerich suggested for this opus?

'ID4-ever,' Part I and II maybe?

We'll have to wait and see if he's joking.

'Independence Day' Sequel To Be Two Movies, Possibly Called 'ID4-Ever' [MTV]

Television writer Paul Simms' piece "Attention, People of Earth" imagines the first extraterrestrial missive to Earth, if the extraterrestrials in question were the sorts of creatures who read The New Yorker and want to assure us that they don't intend to steal our vast reserves of gravel:

You may be wondering how we know your language. We are aware that there's a theory on your planet that we (or other alien species from the far reaches of the galaxy) have been able to learn your language from your television transmissions. This is not the case, because most of us don't really watch TV. Most of our knowledge about your Earth TV comes from reading Zeitgeisty think pieces by our resident intellectuals, who watch it not for fun but for ideas for their print articles about how Earth TV holds a mirror up to Earth society, and so on. We mean, we'll watch Earth TV sometimes-if it happens to be on already-but, generally, we prefer to read a good book or revive the lost art of conversation.

Sadly, Earth TV is like a vast wasteland, as the Earthling Newton Minow once said. But, for those of you who can understand things only in TV terms, just think of us as being very similar to Mork from Ork, in that he was a friendly, non-gravel-wanting alien who visited Earth just to find out what was there, and not to harvest gravel.

Attention, People of Earth [The New Yorker via Mental Floss]

A frequent science fiction novel cover artist, Brambilla's Invading the Vintage series uses actual postcards from Switzerland, Santa Barbara, Milan, and a host of other popular vacation spots. Far from being horrified, the humanoid (and sometimes canine) subjects of these photos treat their alien encounters as just another tourist attraction.

[Franco Brambilla via Drawn!]

Faculty at the Southway Junior School in West Sussex hoped to improve their students' writing skills by giving them something exciting to write about about – front row seats to an alien invasion:

Diana Goss, the headteacher, informed pupils that an alien craft had crashed near the school and pupils were encouraged to "follow a trail of debris" before stumbling across the UFO.

A member of staff was then abducted by aliens before the children were sent back to class.

Sussex police not only approved the event, they participated in it, contributing sirens and flashing lights to make the crash more convincing. Unfortunately, it proved too convincing for some of the 370 students – some as young as seven – who witnessed the abduction. Parents, who were not informed about the "invasion" in advance, were less than pleased when their youngsters came home certain that they had witnessed an actual alien abduction. Said one parent:

"My daughter was deeply upset by it all and came home looking shell shocked.

"She wasn't sure what had happened and really wanted to know that everything was going to be alright."

Still, the school's creative goals might be met when the students use this childhood trauma as fodder for their eventual memoirs.

Children traumatised by 'War of Worlds' abduction of teacher [Telegraph via Xenophilia]

Last week, the Croatian station Radio Antenna began broadcasting reports of an unidentified flying object, a bright spot of light seen moving through the sky. The reports were apparently a planned hoax by the station’s journalists and Kresimir Misak, the host of the local science fiction show, “On the Brink of Science.” Much as Orson Welles staged his radio broadcast of HG Well’s The War of the Worlds to expose the public’s gullibility, these hoaxsters claimed there was a point to their deception:

The Croatian radio journalists admitted only around noon that their report was a joke, aimed at ridiculing Mayor Milan Bandić’s plans to turn Zagreb into a police stronghold. Bandić intended to supply the police with a helicopter, an unmanned flying device, an armoured car and other special instruments, as well as to build a fortified command centre. The journalists behind the joke had decided to test the authorities by faking a Martian attack on the air.

But the mayor was not the only one deceived by the broadcasts. Zagreb residents jammed up the phone lines with calls to relatives, the authorities, and the local fire department. Police officials are currently investigating whether the reports resulted in any public harm and plan to file charges against those involved.

[Balkan Travellers via Marooned]

In the original game you're play Sgt. Nathan Hale who has been tasked with keeping an alien invasion out of Britain, but the sequel shifts things to the United States. Maybe he did such a good job that the aliens decided to say "screw it" and cross the pond — somehow they managed to cross the Pacific pond, though. We wonder if they'll be trashing any historical or religious landmarks like they did with the Manchester Cathedral in the first game, which actually became the center of controversy. Maybe the aliens could invade George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas? We're just saying.

Resistance 2 will be out sometime in the next couple of years, but in the meantime you can ogle the gorgeous artwork. Until someone releases Concept Art: The Game, it's about all you can do.

Resistance 2: Get your concept art here [Computer And Video Games]

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• Half-Life: The original Half-Life came out in 1998, and it's sequel Half-Life 2 came out in 2004. The extremely popular game has spawned numerous "mini-sequels," including Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Episode 2, and the spinoff title Portal.

  In the game, you play Dr. Gordon Freeman, a scientist who unwittingly tears open a dimensional portal during a routine experiment at a facility in the Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico. Aliens begin pouring through the newly opened portal, and you find yourself both the target of these creatures, and of government forces who are trying to hush up the incident. You end up surviving (the sequels wouldn't make much sense otherwise) and things get continually worse. By the time Half-Life 2 begins, the Earth has been changed into a dystopian world that is slowly being de-terraformed into a wasteland. Oceans are being drained, buildings taken apart, and the place is full of both alien and humanoid forces who want to have your liver for dinner.

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• Halo: Halo 3 came out in September, to massively sales and fanboys complaining that it just "wasn't enough," but developer Bungie has created a fully realized universe within in the game.

  Halo takes place in the distant future where the human race is in the middle of a bitter war with an alien race called The Covenant. You play "Master Chief," a genetically engineered supersoldier (called a Spartan) who dons battle armor and serves as humanity's last hope. As the game progresses, you discover that the Covenant have found a giant ring-like object (a Halo) left behind by an ancient alien race called The Forerunners. If activated, the Halo will act as a deadly weapon, able to destroy entire planets. Much like Luke destroying the Death Star, you have to destroy the Halo and make sure the Covenant don't win. The Earth in Halo is brutally invaded by the Covenant, where they lay waste to entire continents with massive weapons, turning all of the land into glass. Cities have become battlefields, and most of the citizens have been wiped out, or are in deep hiding. It's not a pretty site when you see nukes going off all over the planet, and it's even less pretty when you have to go down there. Even if you manage to save the world, it's going to look like a wasteland when you're done.

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• BioShock: One of the most imaginative games to come along in years isn't set in the future at all, but in a bizarre undersea city that re-imagines the future of the past, and combines a steampunk science fiction approach with genetic modification technology.

  In BioShock the game controls Jack, a passenger aboard a plane in 1960. Disaster strikes and the plane plummets into the ocean, killing everyone aboard except you. You swim to a nearby tower poking out of the dark waters, and inside find a bathysphere that takes into Rapture, a full-sized city built secretly on the ocean floor in 1946. Through a series of audio recordings and newsreel style videos, you're shown how meglomaniacal millionaire Andrew Ryan built the city to get away from what he saw as the oppressive rules of government and religion. He envisioned Rapture as an undersea utopia, but it didn't take long for things to unravel. By the time Jack arrives in the city, it's clear that the place is falling apart, and most of the popular are dead. The only remaining inhabitants are "Splicers," genetically mutated humans who are murderous and insane, and a few human holdouts who have barricaded themselves into the few remaining safe places in the city. You become trapped in a battle between the leader of the black market, Atlas, and the insane Ryan himself. As the game progresses, you acquire raw genetic material that you can use at upgrade stations to modify your genetic template, meaning you can give yourself telekinesis, the ability to turn invisible, or the power to shoot flames from your hands. It's sort of like having Heroes on tap. You come to appreciate the beautiful disaster that Rapture has become, with the sea attempting to overtake the city that has become trapped in time.

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• Portal: Strictly speaking, Portal was meant to be a small one-note spinoff set in the Half-Life universe featuring a small game called Narbacular Drop that Half-Life developer Valve had acquired. It was included in The Orange Box, a game set Valve released last month that included Half-Life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2 and Portal. Portal has overwhelmingly been the smash hit of that set.

  In Portal you play Chell, a female test subject for Aperture Science, Inc. (a company in the Half-Life universe) who wakes up inside a gigantic maze and coached (or tortured, depending on your views) by an artificial intelligence called GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System). GLaDOS puts you through a series of testing chambers designed to help you learn how to use the "Portal" gun, which can create entrace and exit wormhole portals on walls, ceilings, and floors. Each chamber challenges you further with increasingly hard puzzles that you have to solve using the Portal gun in order to escape. As the game goes on, you notice that GLaDOS is a bit off her rocker, and all of the human observation posts are empty. In fact, she starts promising that cake will be waiting for you if you can complete the test course. Later you're able to slip behind the scenes and find some graffiti from a previous test subject telling you that the cake is a lie. Although if you finish the game, you find out that she might not have been lying all along. It's all immortalized in a song that GLaDOS sings you over the closing credits, which you can watch below.

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This film marks the first time that New Line will be venturing into the waters dominated by Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks Animation, and interestingly enough it was written by Joe Stillman, who wrote both Shrek and Shrek 2 for Dreamworks. The film will be directed by Jorge Blanco, who created the Commandos video games for the PlayStation 2 back in 1998.

New Line will apparently be activating their marketing juggernaut for the film. Ilion CEO Ignacio Perez Dolset said, "The deal has been made with the objective on everybody's part of going out on no fewer than 3,000 screens."

That means New Line will be spending an amount of money equal to the budget or more in an effort to put people in the seats and sell a ton of Planet 51 merchandise and video games. Let's hope they fare better than Fox did when they released Titan A.E. That sci fi animated film tanked in 2000, and single-handedly shut down Fox Animation Studios. Still, New Line won't be selling their shirts for this one, since they're only buying the U.S. distribution rights.

Based on the pictures they've released, and if they're able to attach some A-list voice talent, they might give the other players in the CGI pool a run for their money. If Planet 51 manages to capture any of the whimsy of The Iron Giant, we're in.

New Line Lands On 'Planet 51' [Variety]

Famous names: Keith Giffen, Bill Mantlo, Todd McFarlane, Bart Sears

Crunchy goodness: 3

Story breakthrough: Invasion! was far from the first time aliens attacked the DC Comics Earth,
but it was the first alien attack on such a huge scale. It also introduced the idea of the "metagene," which gave all the DC heroes their super-powers.

Deadliest spoiler: One of the obscurest heroes of all time, the ghostly Deadman, saves the entire world by possessing one of the Dominators.

Who stays dead: A couple of members of the original Doom Patrol meet a final end in this storyline, to make room for Grant Morrison to revamp the title from scratch.

The DC Canon: Invasion Anatomy of the Crossover #7 by Julian Darius