Steven C. Miller to Direct Area 52

Steven C. Miller has been tapped to direct the movie version of the 2001 Image Comics comic book “Area 52″, says Variety. He’ll be working off a script by Jack Phillips for producers Chris Bender and JC Spink, whose Benderspink shingle, besides sounding a lot like something your mom told you not to do too often lest you lose an eye, has been going around Hollywood setting up comic book properties for movie adaptations out the wazoo. Besides “Area 52″, they have “Power and Glory” and “Y, the Last Man” at New Line Cinema, “The Ghouly Boys” at Mandate and of course, “Pet Robots” at Disney. Where exactly would you expect a movie called “Pet Robots” if not at Disney?

More about the plot of “Area 52″:

At a storage facility in Antarctica that houses top-secret alien wares after Nevada’s Area 51 is done testing them, an Army nurse must restore order after a mercenary attack has unleashed a menacing terror.

Here’s a better description of the comics (via):

Six people pulling less-than-thrilling “guard-duty” over the most sophisticated military facility in history, in a part of Antarctica that’s so cold, even GERMS can’t survive. Doesn’t sound like the setting for a very exciting sci-fi story, you say?

Well, needless to say, things heat up rather quickly in issue one of the four-part mini-series Area 52, by Image Comics.

And, of course, this being a science fiction tale, the “heat,” as it were, involves a rather large menacing alien, bent on conquering the Earth.

Don’t you hate it when that happens?