Flaming Lips film release

The Flaming Lips have revealed that they're planning a March release for their long awaited film 'Christmas On Mars'.

The band say they hope to premier the movie at 2008's SXSW after the final editing is finished in the next couple of months.

Wayne Coyne told Billboard: . "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 also says that they're planning to take the film on a kind of "tour" rather than a general release to theatres.

"I want the Flaming Lips audience to shape this," Coyne explained. "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."

The film has been five years in the making and Coyne says he is now relieved he will no longer have to answer questions about the release date.

He added: "It has built a little bit of an urban legend about itself. I talk to people, strange as it may seem, who think they've already seen it 'cause we've been talking about it for so long. So that's working."

And after the release what is next for The Flaming Lips? Coyne says they will start working on the follow up to 2006's 'At War With The Mystics'.

He said: "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 next year, though."document.write(unescape("