Director Richard Linklater (School Of Rock, Me and Orson Welles) is the top choice to helm Warner Bros’ remake of the 1964 movie, The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Enchanted director Kevin Lima was hired to direct the project back in 2009, although he has since left the project.
The part live-action, part animated original movie, which seems to be more of a classic in the US than it is over here, starred Don Knotts as a man who wishes he was a fish (doesn’t everyone?), which becomes true. The 1964 version is set during World War II, where Limpet goes off to fight the Nazis, although this new version will be told in a contemporary setting.
A deal for Richard Linklater to direct this remake hasn’t been finalised, but the LA Times reports that he has met with Warner Bros. executives several times to lay out his vision for this modernised story. The studio refused to comment, but a source has said Warner Bros. is set to make it official and hire Linklater shortly.
The Incredible Mr. Limpet will be produced with a blend of CGI animation and live-action elements, much like the hand-drawn original. Richard Linklater has experience with animation with his rotoscoping movies Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, where animation is meshed on top of live-action footage, however while he’s a bit of an arthouse darling, he’s had mixed fortunes as a studio filmmaking. He had great success with School Of Rock, but Bad News Bears, which is probably the closest thing to Limpet he’s made (in tone at least), was a bit of a disaster.
Hopefully though if he is hired he’ll get the thing off the ground. There’s been talk of a Limpet remake for years, with Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp and numerous others have all involved at some stage, but eventually dropping out. Most recently Zach Galifianakis was said to be in talk for the lead, although there’s no info on whether he’s still involved.