I love conceptually clever alien invasion films. I mean, Independence Day (humans fight aliens!) is fun, but something like Signs (humans fight aliens, from the point of view of one farm family) is way more gripping. And for all my problems with Cloverfield (which isn't quite an alien invasion movie, though I guess we don't really know that), its notion of an apocalyptic event viewed solely from the ground was brilliant, and the movie worked like gangbusters when it really engaged with that idea instead of focusing on the emotional tribulations of the numbskull characters.

Battle: Los Angeles (not to be confused with Battle in Seattle), which is being fast-tracked for Columbia from a script by Chris Bertolini (The General's Daughter), looks to be a movie like that. The story posits a large-scale alien invasion, but will focus on one marine platoon's role in Earth's effort to fight back on the streets of Los Angeles. I'm not sure any movie to date has tried to answer the question of what it's like for the poor military saps who inevitably get deployed against the terrifying alien attackers. (Starship Troopers is close, but not quite what I have in mind.) I mean, what about those guys who ran across the screen with grenade launchers in Cloverfield? What happened to them? Inquiring minds want to know.

One of the best bits in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is the cameo from Neil Patrick Harris. The former Doogie Howser plays himself, as a drugged-up, sex-crazed car thief. Forget the fact that lots of celebs portray themselves as sleazy or otherwise negative on shows like Entourage and Extras and it's one of those great moments in self-mockery -- up there with Roger Moore in The Cannonball Run and Gus Van Sant in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Now Harris is set to reprise his role for Harold & Kumar 2 (aka -- for now? -- Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay; formerly Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam). He's already shown up in the first trailer (now available on the movie's official site) and now he's here on this teaser poster. As you can see, courtesy of IGN, the poster features Harris riding a unicorn. And the tagline reads, "What Would NHP NPH Do?" There's also a website listed at the bottom, for WhatWouldNPHdo.com. Unfortunately, as of this writing, the URL doesn't seem to be working the URL just takes you to movie's website.*

One thing that is a bit interesting about Harris' return for the sequel is that the actor has come out as being gay since the first Harold & Kumar. So, will he still be playing himself as a guy who likes female hookers? It is very possible, and will make the joke that much more exaggerated. Of course, this poster also has a hint of gay self-parody, so there's a good chance that Harris is going to mock his own coming out. Obviously it isn't a problem for the movie that Harris is now openly gay. It isn't even something necessitating discussion, and I apologize to anyone who is offended at me bringing the issue up. Knowing Harris' playful humor, though (did you know he's even done a Rifftrax commentary with Mike Nelson? Unfortunately, it wasn't for Starship Troopers), I don't think it's a touchy subject for the guy. So, what would NHP NPH do? I guess we'll see come April, when Harold & Kumar 2 hits theaters.

*apparently I suffer from dyslexia.

Sony Pictures has just launched Stage 6 Films, "a label that will acquire and produce films for theatrical and straight-to-DVD release." The Variety announcement reports that Stage 6 will focus mostly on the DVD market, and on films budgeted at $1 to $10 million dollars. They've got a lot of movies on the horizon, with some pretty big stars involved. Conspiracy is an action flick starring Val "Iceman" Kilmer, Gary "Lumbergh" Cole, and Jennifer "Hot" Esposito. Thomas Jane is acting in and directing Dark Country (hope it's not a punisher!). The Stone House is a horror film starring Shane West and JK "Schillinger" Simmons. The Lodger stars Alfred Molina, whom I always picture in his underwear singing "Sister Christian." And Felon brings us even more Kilmer thrills, with Stephen Dorff and Harold Perrineau in tow.

And you know when you're talking direct-to-DVD, you're talking about some really random sequels. Stage 6 has announced a prequel (a prequel?) to this year's pretty cool horror flick Vacancy. There will also be a second Starship Troopers sequel -- Starship Troopers: Marauder, with Casper "Van Dien" Van Dien, Boris Kodjoe, and Jolene Blalock. Wesley Snipes will star in a sequel to the absolutely terrible action movie The Art of War, which I will refer to as The Art of War 2: Seriously? And Center Stage 2 will capitalize on the public's love of melodramatic teen dance dramas. I must confess a special place in my heart for the original Stage, because it led to a memorable high school back seat rendezvous. Put that quote on your poster, Sony! "Stage 6 will also continue to leverage our vast library of studio films, as we have done with Daddy Day Camp and the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise," threatens a Stage 6 executive.

Like most people on the internet, we at Cinematical love lists. I love them so much that I wish I could write about everyone I read, but unfortunately there are too many geeks out there making up too many lists, and not enough love to go round (can't you see this is the land of confusion .... ). But since another thing we love around here is Star Wars -- not just the movies but also the fans, the debates, the complaints, etc. -- I figured that these four lists were worth sharing. Because they all mention something related to George Lucas' popular universe. Three of the lists also reference a lot of Star Trek, but with J.J. Abrams rebooting the franchise and all, I think Trekkies have enough love right now. Meanwhile, the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars occurred this year, and we still had to read about things like the Harry Potter franchise out-grossing the Star Wars series and Serenity beating out Star Wars as a best sci-fi film poll. So, thanks to the people at Fark.com, who love lists even more than we do, here are four movie-related lists that give some appropriate props:

• First we have the Times' countdown of the 40 most memorable aliens. Unfortunately, the only Star Wars aliens listed are at #32 and #26, and they're the Ewoks and Max Rebo, respectively. Considering most of the characters in the series can be considered aliens, this is harsh, but since I'm one of the few Ewok fans out there, I appreciate the gesture. Even if ALF is higher up on the list than they are. At least they're still better than the Coneheads. Anyway the top ten here is full of other significant movie aliens, including the arachnids of Starship Troopers, E.T., the Transformers, Superman, The Blob, The Thing and, at the top spot, God.
  
• Next there's Kunochan.com's countdown of the top twenty starship captains. Once again, Star Wars doesn't get the #1, but it's understandable that Star Trek's most famous captains get the first two slots. At #3, though, is Han Solo. However, the list's author does point out that he had to put a Star Wars character in the top five to avoid having his house firebombed. I don't mind the disingenuous comment; Solo deserves to be higher up than Captain Janeway and the dude from Firefly/Serenity. Down the line at #11 we've also got Grand Moff Tarkin.

Over the years, I've often thought about what it must be like to be on a relatively successful, well-known TV series and get catapulted into the limelight. Or, how it must feel to see your picture everywhere and have a huge amount of fans swarm wherever you go. In some ways, it must be pretty cool. Although, it probably has its drawbacks too, right? One of those drawbacks has to be that once you establish yourself as one thing, one character on one show, that's all people see you as, and it becomes difficult for you to get other roles.

Such is the case, I feel, with the very attractive Jolene Blalock. Sure, she co-starred in the last TV incarnation of Star Trek for several seasons and had her picture plastered all over magazines like Maxim, but I seems like her career has pretty much lost its way after Enterprise -- as evidenced by this recent bit of news courtesy of Moviehole. According to the article, Blalock will be starring in yet-another sequel to Paul Verhoven's Starship Troopers, this time directed by original scribe Ed Neurmeier. The film, currently titled Starship Troopers: Marauder will reportedly feature Blalock as "tough pilot" Lola Beck and also marks the return of original franchise star Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico.

When I was growing up I read Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers novel many, many times and was pretty thrilled to actually get to work on the first movie. I was less thrilled with how it came out and the direct-to-video sequel left me even colder, with little hope for the franchise -- at least in movie form. Sadly, this third go-around doesn't do much to change my perception, even with the inclusion of Blalock. I guess we'll find out one way or another when the film comes to the local Blockbuster later this year.

I'm a huge fan of Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, but ... not so much a supporter of Phil Tippett's direct-to-video sequel, although if you're looking for mindless mayhem, it's (just barely) watchable enough. But did you know that production is presently underway on Starship Troopers: Marauder? Yep, and not only that: Casper Van Dien is coming back to reprise his role as Johnny Rico! Imagine that! (Would you like to know more?)

This time around it's series screenwriter Ed Nuemeier who'll get the directorial reins. (Although he's making his directorial debut here, Ed Neumeier was a screenwriter on the original Robocop as well as ... Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid.) Also on board cast-wise are Marnette Patterson, Jon Falkow and Stephen Hogan, plus Dark Horizons just chimed in with a new addition: "FHM's Sexiest South African" Tanya van Graan will play one of Rico's bug-squashing allies. (The hot model also signed on for a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, so she's definitely got a great agent.)

According to Dark Horizons, Starship Troopers 3 is presently shooting down under. Ms. van Graan will join the production a few weeks from now in Cape Town. No word on when Sony aims to release this late-coming sequel, but you can rest assured it'll be bypassing theatrical release and landing directly onto your Netflix queue.

There's a new interview with Paul Verhoeven over at SuicideGirls, prefaced by the interviewer's contention that Black Book, Verhoeven's latest, is one of the best films of the decade. I wouldn't go that far, but I do think it's one of Verhoeven's best works, which is saying a hell of a lot, and I'll be posting my review of the film on Wednesday morning. In the course of the interview, Verhoeven talks about what attracted him to the project, and about the characters -- anti-Nazi conspirators -- who face death around every corner. "My scriptwriter and I always felt that people under that kind of pressure are really living an existential life because every decision is extremely important," Verhoeven says. "The worst and the best come out."

After some more talk about Black Book, Verhoeven is led into a discussion of Starship Troopers and the unfair criticism it received at the hands of the critical community. "There was an article in The Washington Post when it came out that was not written by a movie critic," Verhoeven says. "One of the editors wrote it saying that this was a neo-Nazi movie and I was promoting fascism. That same article was published in all the European newspapers. When I went to do the publicity tour in Europe, everybody was already looking through that lens. The Washington Post is not a reliable newspaper anyway, but they said the film was written by a neo-Nazi or a Fascist and directed by one."

The most fun part of the interview comes at the end, when Verhoeven is quizzed on what he thinks about James Cameron's supposed Tomb of Jesus. The response is very long-winded and Verhoevian, but here's a sampling: "Of course, that Jesus was buried in some way and did not walk out of his grave is true. He stayed and he died. According to a very famous theologian Dominic Crossan, he thinks that the body was thrown in a mass grave and eaten by the dogs."

Just because one of my old high school pals worked on both movies, that doesn't mean I really love both Starship Troopers movies. OK, I actually do love the first one, while the DTV sequel ... meh, a Saturday afternoon DVD, at best. And now it looks like the pair is about to become a trilogy, and get this: Johnny Rico is coming back!

Yep. According to reliable sources, veteran sci-fi screenwriter Ed Neumeier is poised to make his directorial debut on Starship Troopers 3, and I wasn't kidding about Johnny Rico: Original Trooper Casper Van Dien is planning to make his return to Bug Central! Having written both entries already (in addition to the original Robocop and, um, Anaconda 2), Neumeier is obviously pretty familiar with the genre material. (The first Starship flick was based on the classic novel by Robert Heinlein and resulted in a still buzzed-about Paul Verhoeven sci-fi action satire amalgam.)

Production is set to begin in South Africa next March, which means Starship Troopers 3 should be hitting your DVD stacks by this time next year.