An Ilkley magazine has landed an out-of-this-world role in a major Hollywood movie.

UFO Magazine has been picked by Columbia Pictures to feature in its big-budget blockbuster Men In Black 2, which is expected to be a huge hit when it is released next summer.

The sequel stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as two top secret government agents who have to protect the earth from fiendish alien invaders.

The news is a huge boost for editor Graham Birdsall, who started the extra-terrestrial magazine on his kitchen table 20 years ago. Graham said he was over the moon that the magazine, which now sells more than 100,000 copies in 32 countries, had been chosen for the project.

He said: "It's absolutely fantastic for a magazine from this neck of the woods to be picked for a massive film like Men In Black 2. I was at work late one night in my offices in Ilkley when I got a call from an executive at Columbia saying he was interested in using the magazine in the film.

"He said he'd come across the magazine on a news stand in America and thought it had the right look for the film.

"Apparently some of the film is based around a shop that sells UFO memorabilia and he wanted as many copies of the magazine and of our posters as he could get to use as props. At first I thought it might be a wind-up - we do get a few - but the next day they faxed over a legal agreement which was about two dozen pages long for us to sign, so we realised it was all for real.

"We had to send a box full of as many magazines as possible so hopefully we should get pretty good exposure in the film. I think our magazine will be all over the wall in the shop. It's fantastic that we were picked over all the home-grown magazines in the US and shows that we are doing pretty well in a competitive market."

Graham said: "We've been promised that we'll get an invite to the premiere so that's pretty exciting. The only downside is I'll have to go out and buy a tuxedo now!"

A spokesman for Columbia Tristar pictures said that they were delighted to be working with the magazine. She said: "Men In Black is in post production. We're looking forward to seeing it next August."