We last saw him (or a few of us did) as a human terraformer dealing with dangerous alien microbes in The Last Days On Mars. But for a new movie, Liev Schreiber will be the unearthly one, threatening Chloe Moretz with terror in The Fifth Wave.

According to The Wrap, Schreiber is in negotiations to play a high-ranking military official named Vosch in the film. Moretz is starring as Cassie Sullivan, a young woman who survives the four waves of deadly extra-terrestrial attacks against the Earth’s population that have left our planet a darkened, doomed place where its new conquerors roam in near-human form, picking off survivors.

Cassie, who is hoping to rescue her younger brother, prefers to travel alone, figuring she’ll be safer that way. But then she meets Evan Walker (Alex Roe), a mysterious young man who could be her big hope.

Susannah Grant adapted the script from Rick Yancey’s best-selling novel, and The Disappearance Of Alice Creed’s J Blakeson is in the director’s chair. Nick Robinson is also among the cast for the film, which all involved are hoping end up more Hunger Games than The Host, especially since Yancey has a trilogy of books planned that could spawn a franchise. With Sony providing most of the money and distribution support, the film is in pre-production with a planned 2016 release date.