The Secret of NIMH gets another go

Paramount is developing a feature version of the award-winning children's tale Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Neil Burger (The Illusionist) is in talks to write the screenplay, and former Walden exec Cary Granat is on board to produce.

This film would be the second theatrical go-round for the book, which MGM brought to the screen in 1982 as the animated The Secret of NIMH, directed by Don Bluth.

Robert C. O'Brien's "Rats of NIMH" won the Newbery Medal in 1972 and has been a staple in children's bookstores and libraries since. The story centers on a mouse -- the titular Mrs. Frisby, re-named Mrs. Brisby in the MGM movie -- faced with a crisis when her son falls ill and she must move her family to escape a farmer's plow.

Mrs. Frisby enlists a group of former lab rats, whom she soon discovers run a highly evolved society, who possess advanced technologies and divide labor in the manner of a human community.

It's likely the new "NIMH" would combine live-action and animation in the manner of Alvin and the Chipmunks and other kiddie hybrids, but should hopefully be a little better!

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Titan AE & North by Northwest Reviews

Here are a couple of reviews from Jinja "Should have got an Oscar just for his face" is a great line.


TITAN AE. I was flicking through my DVD collection last night and came across a film I originally saw in New York in 2000. Titan AE.

Yes, I know its a cartoon, and yes, I know it did terribly at the box office and pretty much destroyed Don Bluth's studio. But, it is great.

'A reluctant young hero holds the key to the future of mankind in the palm of his hand in the eye-popping sci-fi adventure.Its the year 3028 and the Drej, a vicious alien race, have destroyed Earth. Fifteen years later a young man named Caled (Matt Damon) learns he possesses a genetically encoded map to the Titan, a spaceship that holds the secret to the salvation of the human race. With the Drej in hot pursuit, Cale blasts off with the new crew of the Valkyrie in an attempt to find the Titan before the Drej destroy it...along with mankind's last chance of a home of their own.'

Fantastic computer generated 3D and standard hand drawn 2D animation merge to bring this story to life. Colours and visuals (especially the ice scene) that, watching upscaled, were outstanding (on blu-ray they must be amazing).

As it says on the cover of my copy from the U.S. "This is the movie 'Star Wars' fans Have been waiting for". I couldn't agree more.

I highly recommend getting hold of this and giving it a watch if you missed it first time round. 9/10



North by Northwest, 1959 - DVD Review

I've recently been getting into Hitchcock movies again - especially with seeing 'Dial M for Murder' on a re-release at the local 'picture house'.

But this weekend I treated myself to North by Northwest. I had never seen this one before (amazingly) and throughly enjoyed the full 2 hours and 16 minutes of it - that must have seemed like a lifetime at the cinema in 1959.

Tagline: A 3000 MILE CHASE . . . That blazes a trail of TERROR to a gripping, spine-chilling climax!

Basic plot: Advertising Exec from New York Roger Thornhill is kidnapped by spies who believe him to be a CIA agent known as George Kaplin. Escaping in one of the best drunk driving scenes I think has ever been put on film (Cary Grant should have got an Oscar just for his face!), Thornhill sets out to find the real Kaplin and clear himself of murder.

I always thought the crop-dusting scene was near the end of the movie - how wrong was I!? The movie went on - but not in a bad way, you wanted to find out what was going to happen around every corner.

Set in the late fifties it reminds you of how small the world used to be, and how romantic.

A great mystery thriller full of adventure, comedy and romance. Again, another high score from me, 8.5/10!