White House Down director Roland Emmerich has acquired the pitch for a sci-fi project entitled Emergence, which he will direct.

The story came from writer Nic Kelman, which takes a different approach to the alien invasion genre that incorporates "hot-button" scientific elements. The project isn't set up at a studio as of yet, but if White House Down is a big hit when it opens later this month, don't be surprised if Emergence gets picked up shortly thereafter.

It isn't known if this will be the next movie that Roland Emmerich will direct, since he is also developing Singularity at Sony, and is attached to direct Asteroids, The Zone, Foundation, and the Independence Day sequels ID Forever - Part 1 and ID Forever - Part 2.

Kirstin Winkler and Aaron Boyd from Roland Emmerich's Centropolis Entertainment will produce. Nic Kelman is currently writing Outpost for Paramount Pictures and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. The writer also holds a Bachelor of Science degree from MIT, and a Masters of Fine Arts from Brown University.