Andy Muschietti to direct new version of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine

Ever since IT became the highest-grossing horror movie ever last year – with 2019’s sequel likely to make nearly as much – director Andy Muschietti and producer Barbara Muschietti have their pick of the projects, and they’re wasting no time plucking each one. The filmmaking siblings have added yet another high-level project to their slate by signing up to make a new adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic “The Time Machine,” which will be a collaboration between Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures and Appian Way.

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Deadline got the scoop that the duo has already written a treatment for the movie, and Andy will be directing while Barbara produces alongside Appian Ways’ Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson. Arnold Leibovit will be returning to executive produce the movie after doing so on the 2002 version of the movie starring Guy Pearce. There’s no word yet on a possible release date or any casting information.

Wells’ now classic story was published in 1895 and follows a character called the Time Traveler, who travels over 800,000 years into the future to find a dystopian world where humans live in deteriorating structures and fight for survival. The novel is considered the original in the time travel genre and has since coined the idea of the time machine, which has been used again and again in all sorts of stories. This will be the fourth adaptation of the story after the 1960 version with Rod Taylor and directed by George Pal, a TV movie version in 1978, and the 2002 Pearce version from director Simon Wells, which received poor reviews and is mostly considered a flop.

The Muschiettis are becoming real Guillermo Del Toros here, as this marks yet another large-scale project for them to add to the growing pile. Within the last few days, we’ve learned they will also be tackling a live-action film version of the ATTACK ON TITAN anime and manga series. Both of these movies will likely be big-budgeted, CGI-heavy films, a far cry from the relatively smaller-budgeted horror films he’s done. After delivering on the hit that was IT, with CHAPTER TWO probably going to be just as big (if not bigger) the duo deserves some more money to play around with, and TIME MACHINE will show what Andy can do when he gets to play around with different genres. 

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IT: CHAPTER TWO hits theaters September 6, 2019.