ALIENS MAY LAND IN COURT

Sony Pictures is "exploring legal options" after learning that a company that it hired to create visual effects for its upcoming alien-invasion blockbuster, Battle: Los Angeles, produced its own low-budget alien-invasion flick, according to DeadlineHollywood.com. The website reported on Monday that Greg and Colin Strause, who run the effects house Hydraulx, did not inform Sony that they were directing the similarly-themed Skyline when they signed on to work on Battle: Los Angeles. Their own film, which Deadline says was shot mostly in an apartment, created strong buzz at the Comic-Con convention and is due to be released by Universal in November, well before Battle‘s release in March. Deadline reported that Sony’s lawyers are attempting to learn, among other things, whether Hydraulx’s deal with Sony helped pay for the equipment used to shoot Skyline. But a spokesman for the Strauses told Deadline that the whole matter amounts to "a blatant attempt by Sony to force these independent filmmakers to move a release date that has long been set … and is outside the filmmakers’ control."