Richard Linklater Moves Forward on 'The Incredible Mr. Limpet' Remake

I was sitting in the audience as Richard Linklater premiered his epic, twelve years in the making coming-of-age drama Boyhood (review here), and considering how much he put into that it's amazing to think he's moving on to something else so soon. Warner Bros. has been trying to get a remake of 1964 live-action/animated fantasy The Incredible Mr. Limpet off the ground for years, and back in 2011 Linklater became attached to direct it. Little has been heard of it since then as Linklater has taken on other projects, but now it looks like he's finally ready to bring this odd little film back into the spotlight.

According to Screen Daily, the film will be next up for Linklater, who plans on combining live-action and animation just like the original. To get started on the animation side of things he's brought on Femke Wolting and Tommy Pallotta, the latter having worked on the rotoscoping animation for Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly.

Don Knotts starred as Mr. Limpet in the prior film, which was a strange and (at least in my opinion) forgettable story about a shy man who turns into a talking fish. Taking place around the time of the Pearl Harbor attacks, Limpet always wanted to join the military but couldn't, so he uses his newfound ability to help locate and destroy Nazi subs. Told you it was strange. As for this version, it looks like Zach Galifianakis is still on board to play Mr. Limpet, and he shares similar goofy qualities with Knotts even if they couldn't be more different physically.  Presumably the story will have to be updated, but naval warfare is hardly what it used to be. Maybe Mr. Limpet will turn into a hummingbird that helps drones sniff out terrorists?