But can anything live up to that title?

If you didn't already know, director Barry Sonnenfeld (the Men in Black movies) and comic book writer Grant Morrison have been working on a graphic novel, which will then become a movie, called Dominion: Dinosaurs vs Aliens. Yes, that's right, Dinosaurs vs Aliens. All of you can now move Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, etc. down a slot on your most anticipated films list.

Barry Sonnenfeld, promoting Men in Black 3, which is out now, said to /Film:

"First, we have to sell the project. We're going out to LA in about 6 weeks with a pre-vis and our script, to see who wants to buy into it."

Wait, there are people with lots of money at their disposal (for the specific purpose of making movies, no less) who *don't* instinctively want to spend it on a movie where dinosaurs fight aliens? That prospect is just incomprehensible.

Or maybe he just meant that everyone would be throwing so much money at them that they'd be able to hold some kind of crazed auction, insisting that everyone use dinosaur and alien signals to denote their bids. Of course, why sell to the highest bidder, when you could sell to *all of them*, and use all the money to make an uber-massive-scale epic, cramming in as many dinosaurs and aliens and fighting combinations thereof as humanly possible. Okay, maybe Hollywood doesn't work like that, but it should. The movie should also make as much as The Avengers is going to make in total...in its opening weekend.

Anyway, it being Hollywood, no doubt someone will try to market the film in a way that's completely redundant given the title. ("It's Godzilla meets Independence Day!") Seriously, if you're friends with someone who *wouldn't* go and see any movie called Dinosaurs vs Aliens, why are you friends with them? (Maybe they're just a really, really, really nice person.)

Anyway, Barry Sonnefeld delivered the hilarious quote:

“We believe that the Dinosaurs had culture."

He then went on to elaborate:

"They didn’t speak, but they did have other ways of communicating. It won’t be a problem, and it will be pretty fantastic.”

This sounds quite interesting.

Wait, they’re talking about Dinosaurs vs Aliens as if we need to know anything further than the title? To quote Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Your logic is not like our Earth logic.” To which Buffy replies, “Mine is much more advanced.” So, basically Xander is dinosaurs and Buffy is aliens?

Sonnenfeld also said that:

“They [the dinosaurs] have rudimentary [weapons], but they learn as they go along from the aliens.”

Could this be a reference not only to the obviously dinosaur-themed Jurassic Park (with the smart raptors), but also to the sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest? (“See if you can fashion some kind of rudimentary lathe…”) If so, then Dinosaurs vs Aliens just accomplished the almost impossible task of becoming even more awesome.

And describing it as a massive "photorealistic CG movie in 3D" sounds awesome, and totally along the lines of the tone conjured by the title. And what better use for 3D than to depict the sheer cheesy awesomeness sublime artistic genius of dinosaurs fighting aliens? If this film doesn't win the Oscar for Best Picture (as well as all the others, including Best Actor for Andy Serkis doing performance capture as the lead dinosaur, because he totally should be cast), there is no justice.

Talking to Collider, Barry Sonnenfeld said:

“I came up with the idea of Dominion: Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens, I thought it would be really cool movie and isn’t like anything I’ve done before because it obviously isn’t a comedy…”

While Sonnenfeld's previous films have involved sci-fi and action elements, they've been largely comedic in tone. Almost all films could do with some (or lots of) humour, but the fact that Sonnenfeld realises that Dinosaurs vs Aliens "obviously isn't a comedy" is encouraging. A film like this demands to be as epic and action-packed as possible. By constrast, Dreamworks' Monsters vs Aliens, though great fun and with some cool action sequences, emphasised the comedy and silliness, and so didn't quite live up to its equally awesome title.

While the comic book version should rock (the first issue was available as part of Free Comic Book Day, so any readers who picked one up, let us know what you thought in the comments), the concept is one that demands to be seen on the big screen. Dinosaurs vs Aliens is bound to be the best film ever. That is, if 'film' is a sufficient term to describe the project that will probably perform the function of Bill and Ted's song which will unite everyone and bring people and harmony to the universe. And considering that the plot of Bill and Ted 3 is said to concern the quest to write this song, maybe at the end they'll discover that the song is the movie. Or they''ll watch the movie, and then instantly be inspired to write the song about it. (Hypothetical spoilers, sorry.)

/Film

See also:

Wizards vs Aliens starts filming

The wasted potential of Cowboys & Aliens

Comic News: Smallville, Doctor Who/Star Trek

Gritty, realistic…fantasy?

Movie critics and movie audiences at war

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