The children’s novel MRS.FRISBY & THE RATS OF NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien looks to be headed for a big screen re-adaptation.
Previously realized as THE SECRET OF NIMH by Don Bluth back in 1982...
...the new project is being scripted by Michael Berg (a writer on numerous ICE AGE projects).
The film will be done as a live-action/CGI hybrid, and Berg is focusing on an origin story in which an imperiled mouse protagonist befriends a comical crew of lab rats as they turn hyper-intelligent. They escape a secret laboratory and become the great minds of vermin civilization, forced to outwit the humans hot on their tails. The hope is to create a franchise.
…says THIS piece at Deadline.
Should this project prove successful, two more NIMH books - authored by Robert C. O’Brien’s daughter Jane Leslie Conly - are waiting in the wings: 1988’s RASCO AND THE RATS OF NIMH and 1991’s R-T, MARGARET, AND THE RATS OF NIMH. Somehow, I’d never heard that the second two books existed. My lady (a fan of the fist book) knew of the second book, but hadn’t learned of the third. The point being: there may be a lovely opportunity here to refresh, re-introduce, and clarify the franchise with broader exposure and cohesive marketing. For publishers and filmmakers alike.
No word on when the new NIMH movie will arrive, but stay tuned…
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Glen Oliver
“Merrick”
