Proving good news still exists in the year of our lord 2020, Miramax Television just announced they are rebooting Guillermo del Toro’s 1997 giant insect horror film Mimic as a TV series, with schlock auteur Paul W. S. Anderson producing and potentially directing the pilot episode.
As reported by Deadline, Anderson will serve as executive producer alongside his producing partner Jeremy Bolt. The two men made an unlikely $1.1 billion franchise out of the Resident Evil movies, and have collaborated on a number of other films including Anderson’s cult favorite gore shocker Event Horizon. Jim Danger Gray, who has worked on a number of series including Orange Is the New Black and Hannibal, is set to write the adaptation and serve as showrunner and executive producer. The show will be shopped around to potential networks in the near future.
“Mimic explores, on its surface, the idea of insects taking over,” Gray said of the series. “Body horror, the anxiety of 'a bug' living inside of us, the death of truth, the denial of science and the rise of personal entitlement are at the heart of our show as it examines how society is eaten alive by an invasion that is laying bare its greatest insecurities and failures.”
“The world of insects has been a long term fascination of mine,” Anderson said. “So much strength and organization from such tiny creatures that have existed long before human kind, and will survive long after our demise. It’s an exciting world that I’m thrilled to jump into, especially with such great partners as Jim and Miramax.”
The original film, based on a short story by Donald A. Wollheim, follows a group of people who discover a frightening species of insect that has evolved to staggering size, with the ability to mimic human beings in order to lure them in and devour them. It’s a creepy ass movie, made even more so by del Toro’s signature visual style and some pretty intense violence. Anderson is an obvious choice to helm a reboot, and I’m all but kicking my feet in joyous anticipation picturing what kind of nastiness the director of Event Horizon could unleash with a bunch of monstrous bugs grotesquely disguised as humans. Judging by what he and Gray had to say about the show, it seems like they have a pretty firm grasp of the unique brand of bleak, shadowy awfulness projected by del Toro’s moody original film. For more on Gray's work, check out our in-depth video interview with Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller and star Hugh Dancy.