Matt Reeves came into his own last year with his sophomore effort “Let Me In.” A remake of the cherished 2008 Swedish film “Let The Right One In,” it was hard for fans of the original to let down their guard and admit that Reeves had crafted a film that was just as powerful if not, in many ways, more successful than Tomas Alfredson‘s admittedly strong picture. While it didn’t do much at the box office, it still impressed studio types and he was on the list for “Man Of Steel” before Zack Snyder landed the gig. But Reeves has decided on his next film, and it will be a return to sci-fi, though this time without POV monsters.
Deadline reports that Reeves is set to write and direct a film based on Ray Nelson‘s short story “8 O’Clock In The Morning.” Doesn’t sound familiar? It was the foundation for John Carpenter‘s 1988 film “They Live,” with the story centering on a man who wakes up one day with the realization that aliens have taken over and are in control. But don’t call it a remake. Reeves will be writing his own script based on the story and will be ditching the plot element where special glasses reveal the identity of aliens who are hiding as humans.
“I saw an opportunity to do a movie that was very point-of-view driven, a psychological science fiction thriller that explores this guy’s nightmare,” Reeves told Deadline. “There could be a desperate love story at the center of this. Carpenter took a satirical view of the material and the larger political implication that we’re being controlled. I am very drawn to the emotional side, the nightmare experience with the paranoia of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers‘ or a Roman Polanski-style film.” That sounds like a pretty damn awesome approach and something that will be a bit more cerebral than the rash of alien invasion flicks that are on the way.
But this one isn’t ready for the cameras just yet. Reeves still has to write the script, but we’re pretty excited to see what he does with the source material. Still on the backburner is his dream project, “The Invisible Woman,” which he told us back in January he hoped to make by piggybacking it on another project — could this be it? We hope so. That film, described as a Hitchockian thriller, once had Naomi Watts attached but she has since moved on. But all around, sounds like a smart move by a director who is very quickly making his mark as one to watch.