Pitchfork

The Flaming Lips are eyeing next March's South by Southwest film festival for the release of their long-forthcoming feature film, Christmas on Mars, according to a recent Billboard.com interview with frontman Wayne Coyne.

"It is coming. In fact, it's better than ever. Because it's taken so long, we've become better filmmakers. There's better computer effects. I think it will be much better," Coyne said. Come to think of it, it makes sense that the Lips would need to build UFOs before traveling to Mars.

After Christmas on Mars' SXSW premiere, Coyne mentioned that the band plans to take the film on a tour of some sort. "I want the Flaming Lips audience to shape this. It'll be like our live show, which evolves as it goes. We'll show it to the audience and let them talk out there on message boards, and then maybe we'll take that and go back and change it and put it out there again and see what they think. It'll be a different experience than sitting at home and watching a DVD, for sure. I don't know if a lot of bands can do that, but the Flaming Lips sure can."

Currently, Christmas is in the final editing stage. The band is also transferring it to HD and adding "in-depth special effects."

Coyne also referred to the possibility of an At War With the Mystics follow-up coming out next year, but he emphasized that finishing the film is the Flaming Lips' first priority. "I have ideas I think could spur a great new Flaming Lips concept and a new sound and things like that, but I feel like we have to finish Christmas on Mars before we jump into anything else. Hopefully we'll be able to do that [new record] next year, though."

Hey, remember when this movie was coming out around Christmastime 2002? Ah, those were the days.

Recently, the band has also contributed songs to movies in which they don't star. They contributed to The Heartbreak Kid and Good Luck Chuck soundtracks, and, according to the Billboard.com report, they have also recorded the theme song for an upcoming unannounced Disney cartoon.

The Lips have two tour dates left on their schedule: one tonight at Amos' Southend in Charlotte, North Carolina and then at the Echo Project in Fairburn, Georgia on October 12. But be careful-- the Charlotte show comes with a surgeon general's warning.