South African director Jonathan Liebesman (pictured) is negotiating to helm Battle: Los Angles for Neal Moritz's Original Films and Columbia Pictures.

Battle: Los Angeles has been described as "Black Hawk Down meets Independence Day" and follows one Marine platoon's battles against an alien invasion on the streets of the Californian city.

The script by Chris Bertolini was optioned by Columbia in April and put out to tender. The Hollywood Reporter indicates that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning's Liebesman shot background plates in Santa Monica in August, then added CGI aliens to them as a pre-visualisation of how he saw the film. He also created a potential alien invasion sequence.