Hollywood are on the hunt for profitable material this early-to-mid-September week, and news on a few of these pick-ups are ready for us to mull over. First, Variety reports that Universal just purchased Cops, a spec item that Cougar Town producer Blake McCormick has scripted; the studio would like Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz (American Reunion, Harold & Kumar) to produce and direct.

The logline sounds more in tune with the duo’s stoner series than what’s the teen (now ’30s) sex comedy, being a story of two buddies whose decision to dress as cops for a party goes horribly wrong. Although it starts off as the makings of a good time, they, somehow, are mistaken for actual officers of the law and asked “to bring a dangerous criminal back to the station” — from whereon things can only get wackily dangerous. Funny or not, don’t tell me you can’t already picture everything about this one.

Next up, Variety also inform us of a grab on Sony’s part. In this instance, the studio have taken up an item from the talented pair of Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland): Epsilon, a robot war tale which Michael DeLuca (Moneyball, The Social Network) will produce alongside the pair of screenwriters.

In Reese and Wernick‘s script, a cyborg attempt to take over the planet, despite being a general failure, “has left the world without any use of electronics.” (Not that there’s an upcoming TV series with a similar conceit, but okay.) What robots have survived are able to kidnap 30 children, with whom they plan to “infiltrate the world’s defense system” and, we’d guess, cause trouble. There’s surely (hopefully) more there, but the first work of these two will keep me interested.

Things end with Variety, who, once again, have heard of a pick-up, this one concerning Alcon Entertainment. The company have bought Icons, an upcoming book from Margaret Stohl, author behind next year’s Beautiful Creatures; producer Erwin Stoff will be returning from that effort, with this next picture concerning four children who find themselves immune to the powers of an alien race behind Earth’s destruction. Do you even need me to tell you that this series has more books to offer? Of course not.

Which of these three future pictures are you liking the vibe of most?