You've heard the conspiracy theories before: Scarlett Johansson is actually an alien come to earth to seduce mankind with her curvaceous body and stunning good looks.

All right fine, so that's not actually true. But at least she'll be playing the part of a sexy alien in her next movie.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Johansson has signed on to star in the new film Under the Skin, from writer/director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast). The plot of the film revolves around Johansson's character, a killer alien sent to earth disguised as the perfect woman, coming to terms with humanity.

For more insight into the sci-fi script, which was co-written by Walter Campbell and could enter production in spring 2011, check out this excerpt from the THR article.

"Johansson plays an alien on earth, disguised as the perfect aesthetic form of a mesmerizing woman. She scours remote highways and desolate scenery looking to use her greatest weapon to snare human prey -- her voracious sexuality. She is deadly efficient, but over time becomes drawn to and changed by the complexity of life on earth. With this new found humanity and weakening alien resolve, she finds herself on a collision course with her own kind. Taking her point of view throughout, the film presents a unique look at our world through alien eyes."

Given the talent involved, the script is probably decent, but that description actually makes the movie sound really cheesy. My first impression was that Under the Skin will simply be a fancier version of Species. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing of course. I have fond memories of watching Species as a kid, though I've probably already said too much.

Coming off the success of Iron Man 2 (and gearing up for a reprisal of her character in The Avengers), Scarlett Johansson is certainly one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood right now. That being said, this move seems a bit obvious. Don't actresses usually have to ugly themselves up to get Academy Award nominations (See Nicole Kidman in The Hours, Charlize Theron in Monster)?

I only hope that Johansson's attempt to play a sexy alien seductress in Under the Skin is more successful than Megan Fox's attempt to play a sexy demon seductress in Jennifer's Body.

Source: THR