MGM has purchased the rights to the classic genre movie The Incredible Shrinking Man and will give us reboot.
Based on the novel by Richard Matheson, the original film was released in 1957. Matheson will adapt his novel for the reboot with help from his son, Richard Matheson, Jr. The screenplay will keep the tone of the original while updating it for modern times.
The book, written when atomic-bomb fear ran high, centers on a man who is exposed to radiation and insecticide and begins to shrink. The Mathesons will modernize the story to reflect advancements such as nanotechnology.
Describing the new iteration as “an existential action movie,” the elder Matheson says, “My original story was a metaphor for how man’s place in the world was diminishing. That still holds today, where all these advancements that are going to save us will be our undoing.”
Universal held the rights to the book for decades, releasing the original movie and trying with Imagine Entertainment to come up with ways to bring a new adaptation to the big-screen.
The rights lapsed last summer and MGM quietly purchased them.
“The themes of The Shrinking Man continue to be relevant,” says Jonathan Glickman, president of MGM’s motion picture group. “And the Mathesons’ cutting-edge ideas for the adaptation will make for a great film that will play all over the world.”
“It’s one of those fantasy concepts that does not age,” echoes the elder Matheson, who continues to write. (He has a book titled Leave Yesterday Alone, due to come out later this year.)
This screams of competition for Ant-Man