The Incredible Shrinking Man is one of the best sci-fi film stories of the fifties, as it was penned by one of the best storytellers in the genre, Richard Matheson.
Matheson also wrote I Am Legend, many classic episodes of the Twilight Zone (including Little Girl Lost and Nightmare at 20,000 Feet), Somewhere In Time, and many more.
For decades now, Universal has been trying to bring Shrinking Man back, and like The Creature From the Black Lagoon, it’s remained a frustrating project to try and resurrect. (At one point, it was even going to be done as a comedy with Eddie Murphy.) Well, now it looks like The Incredible Shrinking Man could finally be coming back, with the help of Matheson himself.
Several years ago, Matheson and his son Richard Jr. put together a package of Richard Sr.’s best work to be made, and remade, into movies after the success of another story he wrote for the Twilight Zone that was a big screen hit, Real Steel. As the Hollywood Reporter notes, the rights for Shrinking Man lapsed last year from Universal, and now a remake is set up at MGM.
Matheson is 87, and he’ll be writing the new adaptation of his classic story with Richard Jr. Even as he’s pushing 90, Matheson is not slowing down, in fact he’s got a new book coming out later this year called Leave Yesterday Alone. As Jonathan Glickman, President of MGM, told the Reporter, “The themes of Shrinking Man continue to be relevant. And the Mathesons’ cutting-edge ideas for the adaptation will make for a great film that will play all over the world.”
Matheson Sr. himself calls his new take on his classic story “an existential action movie. My original story was a metaphor for how man’s pace in the world was diminishing. That still holds today, where all these advancements that are going to save us will be our undoing.”
With many classic Matheson stories still proving to hold up strong today, it’s good to see the Shrinking Man finally back after all this time. Let’s hope it can finally make the long and winding road out of development hell and reach the big screen again.
