A couple of months ago, we reported on the fact that Tim Burton had been approached by Disney/DreamWorks to take on an adaptation of the miniature monster-battling game Monsterpocalypse. Well, now things have moved on and according to producer Roy Lee, Burton is now developing the film as one of his likely directing jobs.

Talking to Slash Film, Lee admitted that while Burton is definitely hard at work on the film, there’s no set schedule for him to make it yet, as regular collaborator John August is still scribbling the script, and the project is in competition with the likes of Dark Shadows and more for Burton’s attention. Chances are Shadows will arrive first, even though it just grabbed a new writer.

So what of Monsterpocalypse? Created by Matt Wilson, the tabletop blend of strategy and Godzilla-like battles is being turned into a story of Earth fighting off giant beasts. When the planet is attacked, mankind fights back, believing at one point that the creatures are bested. But then a signal is sent to the stars and humanity realises it’ll have to be ready for a new wave of destructive monstoids. Cue the building of massive, crewed robots to save the day.

One sign of the progress on the film is the hiring of Oscar-winning visual effects guru Ken Ralston to start working on early designs for both the aliens and the robots with Burton, who is apparently bringing his unique style to the designs.

Lee seems to think the film could be hitting cinemas by the end of 2012, though since we all know how Hollywood works, it could take longer than that…