TMZ is reporting that the reason we may not have heard anything about the Warner Bros. picture The Invasion a movie that was supposed to be released this year, but has since moved to August 17, 2007.
TMZ reports that the Oliver Hirschbiegel directed film is completed, but an insider told the site, “This is normal. It’s a thriller, and occasionally, a studio will want it to make it, you know, actually thrilling.” Thus, producer Joel Silver has asked his Matrix buddies, the Wachowski brothers, to come on in and do some rewriting. That same insider told TMZ that “the ending of the film left something to be desired in the eyes of Warner Bros. production president Jeff Robinov, and that Silver quickly reloaded his “V for Vendetta” scribes to fashion a new ending, the details of which have not yet emerged.”
The Invasion was originally said to be a remake/re-imagining of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers but that was said not to be true as the story moved further and further away from the original. The official synopsis reads as:
The Invasion tells the story of a mysterious epidemic that alters the behavior of human beings. When a Washington D.C. psychiatrist (Nicole Kidman) discovers the epidemic’s origins are extraterrestrial, she must fight to protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping an imminent invasion.
German director Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 2005 drama Downfall earned major acclaim and was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Word is Hirschbiegel and screenwriter Dave Kajganich will keep their credits, but there is no word on whether or not Hirschbiegel will direct the new footage. Rewrites happen all the time, but this smells a lot like a recent Warner Bros. snaffu involving the Exorcist prequel, which resulted in two separate films. I can pretty much guarantee that isn’t going to happen again, but this is certainly an interesting situation.
