Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

[GreenScar]

Neil Burger is negotiating with Paramount to script and direct a new big-screen version of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Robert C. O’Brien’s novel was first brought to the big screen as an animated picture by Don Bluth, retitled The Secret of NIMH. No official indication as yet if the latest version will be live action or animated or both (as if live action didn’t already mean both, particularly when the lead characters are animals) but I’m think Burger suggests a live-action route.

Bluth’s film did digress from the novel a little, even so much as killing off characters in sword fights, mixing in a little quasi-spiritual mumbo jumbo and shifting the structure around quite considerably. Nonetheless, I think it’s a winning work in its own right and fully commendable attempt to fit the book into a feature film. having said that, I wouldn’t want Burger to take the same approach but instead brew up something new again.

This story seemed to break as a College Movie Review story but has now wound up in Variety also. Neither source has much information, but Neil Burger plus Robert C. O’Brien sounds really very good to me even before any sauce is added and I’ll definitely be keeping a sharp eye on this one.

For franchise potential, O’Brien’s daughter Leslie Jane Conly has written two NIMH sequels which I haven’t read but surely must be better than Dick Sebast’s knock-off follow up to the Bluth movie.

Burger’s first foray into family films was expected to be the third Chronicles of Narnia picture, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but that was never to be and the film only yesterday entered production under director Michael Apted and with a script rewritten by both Steven Knight and Richard La Gravenese. Must be set to wind up better than Caspian… right?

For those of you who haven’t seen Neil Burger’s clever, indie debut film Interview With the Assassin, you might do well to add this curious offshoot of the JFK conspiracy and mockumentary genres to your Netflix queues.

I remember really enjoying Bluth's version when it was released but knew liberties had been taken (just as most adaptations do). I'm down to see an updated version. The other news here is that Voyage of the Dawn Trader has finally started production.

[Sylin]

Opening night for me.

[Batman1980]

Would have to see the trailer first, don't like it as much as I did 20 years ago. Thanks for the heads-up on Dawn Treader.

[Rob J in WNY]

My 4th grade teacher read us the book way back then, titled Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Later, in the '80s, we watched the animated adaptation, The Secret of NIMH, over and over again on HBO (Mrs. Frisby's name was changed to Mrs. Brisby for the motion picture), and nowadays, the DVD is parked in my collection. My son watches it on occasion now.

The movie featured voiceover performances by John Carradine, Dom DeLuise and a very young Shannon Dougherty.

A reboot of this story has the potential to be magnificent.

[Edawg72]

It would be cool to see whatever happens with it. The original cartoon is timeless in my book!

[F-Man]

So we'll probably get Don Bluth's movie on Blu-ray to tie in with this new adaptation. Sounds great but then again that means we won't get it for at least four years according to IMDB.

[BLUEGRASS]

MGM has acquired the screen rights to Robert C. O'Brien children's book "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH".

Michael Berg ("Ice Age 5") is attached to pen the screenplay for this adaptation which will be a combination of live-action and CG animation ala "The Smurfs," along with being the first of a potential franchise.

The film will be something of a prequel to the original story and follows an imperiled mouse who 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.

Daniel Bobker and Ehren Kruger will produce. Don Bluth helmed a previous screen adaptation, the 1982 animated feature "The Secret of NIMH".

SOURCE: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/360...ake-on-the-way

[Himmel]

Rats of NIMH animated series in the works. -Source