MGM to Reboot ‘Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH’ as a Live-Action/CGI Hybrid Feature Film, Hires ‘Ice Age 5’ Scribe Michael Berg as Scriptwriter

MGM has acquired the rights to the award winning Robert C. O'Brien 1971 children's book Mrs. Frisby & The Rats Of NIMH, and has commissioned Michael Berg, best known for his work on Ice Age 5, to write the script for the planned feature film, which will be done as a live-action/CGI hybrid, according to Deadline.

O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby & The Rats Of NIMH, the winner of the 1972 Newberry Medal, was first adapted for the big-screen in 1982 as the Secret of NIMH, an animated feature film directed by Don Bluth and distributed by United Artists. Critically acclaimed and commercially successful, it was followed in 1998 by a direct-to-video sequel produced by MGM Animation titled The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue.

In the original Mrs. Frisby & The Rats Of NIMH story, Mrs. Frisby is introduced as the widowed head of a family of field mice. Her son, Timothy, is ill just as the farmer Mr. Fitzgibbon begins preparation for spring plowing in the garden where they live. Normally she would move her family, but Timothy would not survive the cold trip to their summer home. Mrs. Frisby asked for and got help from the rats who live in a rosebush near her. Escapees from the National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) labs just like her late husband Jonathan, they have survived experiments that have been carried out on them that allowed them to read, write, and operate complicated machines, as well as enhanced their longevity and strength. With the help of the rats of NIMH, Mrs. Frisby was able to safely move her family to their summer house.

As gathered by Deadline, Berg is focused on developing an alternate origin story in which "an imperiled mouse protagonist befriends a comical crew of lab rats as they turn hyper-intelligent. They escape a secret laboratory and become the great minds of vermin civilization, forced to outwit the humans hot on their tails."

MGM senior vice president Cassidy Lange is assigned to oversee the Mrs. Frisby & The Rats Of NIMH project. Daniel Bobker and Ehren Kruger will produce through their Bobker/Kruger label. MGM is reportedly hoping to create a new franchise based on the upcoming re-imagining of the O'Brien children's story.