Mike Newell, director of FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, DONNIE BRASCO, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE, and the recent GREAT EXPECTATIONS starring Ralph Fiennes and Helene Bonham Carter, is ready to make another big budget foray into science fiction and fantasy with an updated version of the novel THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS. If you live in North America, that name likely doesn’t mean much to you, but Brits may recognize the story from both the big screen 1962 version or the 2009 mini-series on the BBC starring Dougray Scott and Joely Richardson.
THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS came out at the same time as numerous other movies about alien invasions at the height of the Cold War. The film’s plot concerns otherworldly plant creatures that take over Earth after a comet blinds most of the human population. A small band of survivors must defeat the enemy. It may sound cheesy, but it will depend on whether or not Mike Newell is going for something outlandish and cartoony or something a little more like WAR OF THE WORLDS.
THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS is being produced by Ghost House Pictures from a screenplay by Neil Cross (BBC’s LUTHER). No cast has been announced and the release date is still tentative. We haven’t had a good big budget alien invasion movie like this in quite some time. Newell is an intriguing choice to helm this, but I think it will also depend on if this is aiming to be a tentpole feature or a quick little pulp flick.
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