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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