Poster for the film 'Mars Attacks!', 1996.

'Mars Attacks!' is a 1996 American dark comedy science fiction film directed by Tim Burton. The screenplay, which was based on the cult trading card series of the same name, was written by Jonathan Gems. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Jack Nicholson (in a dual role), Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Pam Grier, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Lisa Marie Smith and Sylvia Sidney.

Alex Cox had tried to make a Mars Attacks film in the 1980s before Burton and Gems began development in 1993.

The filmmakers hired Industrial Light & Magic to create the Martians using computer animation after their previous plan to use stop motion animation, supervised by Barry Purves, fell through because of budget limitations.