Now Hollywood's newly-minted schlock factory, the cable channel SyFy, has commissioned a low-budget "mockbuster" telemovie about giant lava-spewing tarantulas.

It's name? Lavalantula, of course.

In the film, giant lava-breathing tarantulas erupt out of a dormant volcano which is found under the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles.

Filming has commenced on the project in Los Angeles and the cable channel SyFy is expected to air it in 2015.

Internationally, the NBC Universal's channels business is expected to roll the film out in international territories, including Australia, day and date with the film's release.

Lavalantula will star three of the actors from the 1980s Police Academy franchise Steve Guttenberg, Leslie Easterbrook and Michael Winslow, known to fans of those films as Mahoney, Callahan and Jones.

It will be directed by Mike Mendez, the man behind the film Big Ass Spider, about a giant alien spider which escapes from a laboratory rampages throught the city of Los Angeles.

Sharknado was produced in 2013 and starred Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Cassie Scerbo and Australian actor Jaason Simmons.

The telemovie was intended originally as a low-budget satire of disaster movies, but became a social media phenomenon and was, eventually, even released briefly in cinemas.

A sequel, Sharknado 2: The Second One, was produced earlier this year.

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