One of the good things about Comic Con, and there are many, is that it really does let you know what’s coming down the pike and let’s you know what the next big thing will be. It puts things on your radar that you might otherwise have missed out on.

The Darkest Hour is one of those things. I’d never heard of it, (And frankly, that’s saying something if I do say so myself) but it sounds very very cool. Filmed on location in Russia, the pic above is the film’s star Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild, Milk) in Moscow’s Red Square, with St. Basil’s Cathedral in the background. Production actually had to be suspended for three weeks due to the heavy smoke from the wild fires surrounding Moscow in August 2010.

Synopsis: The Darkest Hour follows five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack.   The 3D action-thriller highlights the classic beauty of Moscow alongside mind-blowing special effects from the minds of visionary filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Night Watch) and director Chris Gorak.

Except for the part about the 3D (yawn) I’m all for this. It may or may not have anything to offer the ever expanding ‘alien-invasion genre’, other than “the classic beauty of Moscow” but that might just be enough. Aren’t you tired of aliens terrorizing New York or LA? What about the rest of the world? Why would aliens be as ethnocentric as Earthlings?

Below is some concept art that was revealed, during Comic Con (where else?) with the promise of a trailer coming soon. This is only the second feature for director Chris Gorak. His first, Right at Your Door, was a hit at Sundance in 2006. In addition to Hirsch, The Darkest Hour costars Olivia Thirlby (Juno, Solitary Man), Max Minghella (Syriana, The Social Network), Rachel Taylor (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and Joel Kinnaman (“The Killing”, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) along with many Russians and is scheduled for a December 23 release in the US and 13 January in the UK.