Universal and Blumhouse have lined up a release date for Leigh Whannell‘s The Invisible Man and the reimagining of the horror classic will have some fellow monster competition. The Invisible Man will hit theaters on March 13, 2020, which was previously bookmarked for an Untitled Blumhouse Productions Project. That date puts the film up against Warner Bros.’ big-budget monster brawl Godzilla vs. Kong, which is sure to stir up some box office competition with the two Big Bois of the MonsterVerse going head-to-head.
It’s an interesting move since both films are ostensibly targetting monster fans, but Blumhouse and Universal just had a huge success with the mid-March release of Jordan Peele‘s Us, so it’s certainly a release date that shows a lot of confidence in the project. The Invisible Man is also set up to be a modest production in the classic Blumhouse sense.
Image via Blumhouse
When we last caught up with producer Jason Blum, he told us the low-budget appeal was a big part of why Whannell’s pitch caught his eye:
“It was like the Blumhouse version of The Invisible Man, it’s a lower-budget movie. It’s not dependent on special effects, CGI, stunts. It’s super character-driven, it’s really compelling, it’s thrilling, it’s edgy, it feels new. Those were all things that felt like they fit with what our company does. And it happened to be an Invisible Man story, so it checked both boxes. And we responded to it because I think Leigh is just an A+ director.”
The Invisible Man is set to star Elisabeth Moss and Storm Reid and plot details are still under wraps at the moment. Coming off his critical hit Upgrade, Whannell will write and direct the new take on Universal’s classic monster, which also sets a new direction for Universal’s plans for their classic monsters library after their big-budget Dark Universe fizzled out with The Mummy.
Filming on The Invisible Man will kick off this July in Sydney, Australia.
Image via Unviersal