Jean Claude Van Damme has battled thugs, assassins, terrorists and now…aliens?  It was reported today by Variety that ‘The Muscles from Brussels’ will now star in an upcoming sci-fi movie called ‘UFO’.

The official synopsis of ‘UFO’ states the film is about “Five friends (who) wake on a seemingly normal morning to find the power’s out, there’s no mobile phone reception and the radio can tune nothing but static…None of the neighbors know anything about what could have caused these occurrences and news soon arrives that it may in fact spread across half of the UK, maybe further. But with no way of discovering any information and no advice on what to do, the atmosphere quickly turns edgy. Two nights later they are awoken in the dead of night by what seems like a violent earthquake, strange lights are spotted shining down from high above outside, something is flying over the house, not just the house, the entire neighborhood, something huge. A city size UFO, finally settles, hovering in the distance above the nearest city. What now? Are they going to attack? Have they already attacked? Are the power cuts an accidental side effect the UFO isn’t aware of? How quickly will society deteriorate and turn into survival of the fittest? What would you do to survive, to ensure the survival of those you love? Whatever happens… Try to remain calm.”

Filming of ‘UFO’ has started in England and Van Damme will play a retired military advisor brought in to uncover the truth about the UFO. The role was initially offered to Van Damme via an e-mail to his wife. Dominic Burns decided to send the e-mail on the off chance he would be interested and to his astonishment, Van Damme agreed. (Note to aspiring filmmakers: never discount e-mailing the significant other of an actor if you want them to star in your film).

This will be the first film Burns will serve as writer-director although he has directed Mark Hamill (as well as many of the other actors in this film) in ‘Airborne’. Burns describes ‘UFO’ as” ‘Independence Day’ meets ‘Monsters’, told from the point of view of ‘Signs.’”

‘UFO’ also stars Bianca Bree, Simon Phillips, Andrew Shim, Peter Barratt, Forbes KB, Jazz Lintott, Maya Grant, and Sean Brosnan (Pierce Brosnan’s s son) and although the film does not have a distributor yet, Burns hope to have the film ready for release sometime in 2012. Even without the addition of JCVD, ‘UFO’ seems to have an interesting concept. Would watching Van Damme beat down an alien give you added incentive to see the movie?