A family comedy in which kids defeat space aliens to save the world is scheduled to be shot in Hawai'i this year.

Empire Film Group Inc., a Malibu, Calif.-based independent film production and distribution company, has announced it will produce the movie "Soakers" from a screenplay by the late Bob Clark, a writer, producer and director who also wrote "A Christmas Story."

The movie is one of two on tap for Hawai'i later this year as the local film industry goes through a down year. The other movie, "Soul Surfer," is an autobiographical story of Kaua'i surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her left arm in a shark attack. The Hawaii Film Office expects that the film, directed by Sean MacNamara, will start shooting late this summer or in early fall.

Empire is budgeting $10 million for "Soakers" and has yet to cast the movie, though it said it is in discussions with several comic stars. The company said the movie will have a commercial box-office cast.

"This is by far the largest film production budget yet for Empire," Dean Hamilton-Bornstein, Empire chairman and chief executive, said in a press announcement.

"Bob's screenplay has broad audience appeal and the potential for significant box office success, so we didn't want to compromise on either the visual effects or the casting."

The movie is described by Empire as a comedy that combines elements of kids-as-cool-heroes movies "Spy Kids" and "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius." In a plot line released by Empire, twins move to the island of Hawai'i with their mother and discover their schoolteachers and police are aliens who've been sent to destroy the human race and take over Earth.

The heroes are able to turn the tables on the aliens when they discover the outer space creatures can be annihilated by sneezing on them. The movie is planned for release next summer.

Donne Dawson, head of the Hawaii Film Office, said she has met with Empire executives to discuss the state's incentives and potential locations here.

The production would come at a good time for the state's film and television industry. The film office's Web site lists only one feature film being shot here this year, the production "You May Not Kiss the Bride."

That's compared with seven feature films and cable television films the site lists as shooting at least a portion of their productions here in 2008.

Dawson said there are several reasons why the number of productions is down this year, including the cyclical nature of the business in which some years see a good crop of films while others have lots of television productions.

She said the overall economy, earlier labor uncertainties with the Screen Actors Guild negotiations and worries that the state Legislature might cut Hawai'i's film production credit might have kept some companies from filming here.

The SAG negotiations were recently concluded and the Legislature left the tax credit untouched.

Now, "the phones are ringing and we're starting to see a little more activity," Dawson said.

That includes the film about Hamilton, which she said will probably be mostly shot in the state. Director MacNamara is a partner in Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based Brookwell MacNamara Entertainment and created "Beyond the Break," 34 half-hour shows filmed in Hawai'i for the Noggin Cable Network.