Nearly two years after first being set up at MGM, the long-awaited adaptationRats of Nimhfinally has a director.James Madigan, a visual effects specialist who has worked onIron Man 2,The Da Vinci Codeand HBO’sRome, just to name a few, has come aboard to directRats of Nimh. This adaptation will mark the feature filmdirectorial debutforJames Madigan, after spending the past 16 years working in various areas of visual effects. He recently transitioned to second unit director, and worked on the giant shark thriller Meg.
When MGM first picked up the rights to thisadaptationin March 2015, we reported that the movie will be an origin story about an “imperiled mouse protagonist” who befriends a group of lab rats as they become “hyper-intelligent.” The story will follow these rats as they escape a secret laboratory and become great minds in their civilization, as they try to outwit the humans who have been chasing them.Variety’s report reveals this story centers on a group of rescued lab rats who are recruited to save a rodent family.
Robert C. O’Brien’s original novelMrs. Frisby & the Rats of Nimhwas first published in 1971 and won the Newberry Medal a year later. It was previously adapted intoThe Secret of NIMH, a 1982animated featurewhich featured a voice cast that includedDerek Jacobi,Dom DeLuise,Shannen DohertyandWil Wheaton. The animated adaptation spawned the 1998 sequelThe Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue. MGM hopes to start a franchise with this new live action/CGI hybrid adaptation, following Paramount’s previous attempts to re-launch this franchise, to no avail.
Michael Berg, who has had a hand in writing all of theIce Age movies, is writing the script, withDaniel BobkerandEhren KrugerproducingThe Rats of Nimhthrough their Bobker/Kruger production company.Ehren Krugeris best known for writingTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen,Transformers: Dark of the MoonandTransformers: Age of Extinction, along with the 2002 horror-thrillerThe Ring.Daniel BobkerproducedThe Skeleton KeyandThe Brothers Grimm, both of which were written byEhren Kruger, before they started their own production company, where they’re working on aBrothers GrimmTV series andOphelia, starringDaisy RidleyandNaomi Watts.
Now that a director is in place, hopefully we’ll be hearing more about casting forRats of NIMH, although no production schedule or release date has been given.James Madiganstarted his career as a digital compositor on Earth 2 way back in 1994. He also worked on Waterworld and Crimson Tide.
