Ragesh Dipu
Blumhouse’s upcoming reboot of ‘The Invisible Man’ will hit theaters on March 13, 2020, Universal Pictures announced on Monday. The movie stars Elisabeth Moss and Storm Reid in the lead roles. Leigh Whannell, who is known for directing ‘Insidious: Chapter 3‘ and ‘Upgrade,’ is aboard as the screenwriter and director. The movie will start rolling production in Sydney in July, reports The Wrap.
Whannell also produces the movie along with Jason Blum for his Blumhouse Productions, Goalpost Pictures’ Kylie du Fresne and Nervous Tick for Universal Pictures. The upcoming flick is a remake of the 1933 movie of the same name, which is based on the novella by H. G. Wells. The legendary author introduced his iconic character of the Invisible Man back in 1897.
The character’s legacy spans across numerous television and film remakes. The plot centers on the alluring concept of invisibility and adventurers who crossed the line separating sanity and insanity in their pursuit of the mysterious feat. A scientist who successfully discovers a way to turn himself invisible is the central character in Well’s novella. But he fails to retrieve his normal visible form and goes mad in his desperate attempts to return. The character of Invisible Man has become one of the prominent universal monsters over the years.
Johnny Depp was associated with the project back in 2016 when Universal was planning to launch a full-fledged Dark Universe with the release of the movie ‘The Mummy.’ The studio has lined up a number of ambitious projects like ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ starring Russell Crowe, ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ and ‘The Wolf Man’ among others to build a shared universe of its stable classic monsters. But Universal abandoned its plans for the shared universe after poor ratings and reviews picked up by ‘The Mummy.’ .
“It was like the Blumhouse version of the ‘Invisible Man,’ it’s a lower-budget movie. It’s not dependent on special effects, CGI, stunts,” producer Jason Blum previously revealed to Collider. “It’s super character-driven, it’s really compelling, it’s thrilling, it’s edgy, it feels new. Those were all things that felt like they fit with what our company does. And it happened to be an Invisible Man story, so it checked both boxes. And we responded to it because I think Leigh is just an A+ director.”
Whannell and Blumhouse have together made successful films like the ‘Insidious’ franchise and ‘Upgrade.’ On the other hand, Moss is all set to return as her iconic role of Offred in the third season of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ which premieres on June 5 on Hulu.
Cover Image Courtesy: Universal
