Leigh Whannell's 'The Invisible Man' Remake To Materialize In 2020
The Invisible Man remake will be appearing in theaters in 2020, with Universal officially setting the release date for the Blumhouse-produced film starring Elisabeth Moss and directed by Leigh Whannell.Deadline reports that Universal has set The Invisible Man for March 13, 2020, the same date as Warner Bros.' own classic monster mashup Godzilla vs. Kong.
It's stiff competition for the thriller based on Universal's classic monster movie 1933's The Invisible Man, itself based on H. G. Wells' 1897 novel of the same name. But with beloved horror studio Blumhouse producing the film and Emmy-winning The Handmaid's Tale actress Elisabeth Moss set to star, The Invisible Man remake has the potential to be a real success for Universal. Or at least more than a shot in the dark to revive Universal's ill-fated Dark Universe, revolving around the studio's roster of classic movie monsters.
Johnny Depp was previously set to star in the project before the Dark Universe's untimely demise, but the project has been since rehauled as a female-led remake starring Moss. The release date news comes after it was announced that A Wrinkle in Time's Storm Reid has also joined Moss in the cast of the thriller as a character named Sydney who "initially likes having Cecilia around as a role model, but grows mistrustful of her when strange things begin to happen around the house." The base synopsis is as follows:
The Leigh Whannell-directed movie follows Cecilia (Moss), who receives the news of her abusive ex-boyfriend's suicide. She begins to re-build her life for the better, but her sense of reality is put into question when she begins to suspect her deceased lover is not actually dead.
Deadline notes that it was part of Universal's idea to "open-source the classic characters to filmmakers inspired to create their own unique stories, there were no budget, genre or rating restriction." This is likely happy news for Whannell, who is known for helming brutal action thrillers like Upgrade and writing horror films like the Insidious series, later taking on directorial duties for the third horror flick in the franchise. Blumhouse has never shied away from gore either, and the prospect of updating a mostly macabre but fairly bloodless story like The Invisible Man is probably a great draw for the studio.
The Invisible Man is being produced by Jason Blum for his Blumhouse Productions and Kylie du Fresne for Goalpost Pictures. The film is a co-production of Goalpost Pictures Australia and Blumhouse in association with Nervous Tick for Universal Pictures.