Spider-Man: No Way Home Composer Michael Giacchino Directing First Big Screen Project With Major Sci-Fi Reboot

Having cut his teeth as a director with the Marvel Studios Special Presentation Werewolf by Night, Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino is set to make his feature film directorial debut with a huge reboot. According to Deadline, the Up and Spider-Man: No Way Home composer will helm a reboot of the 1954 sci-fi movie Them! for Warner Bros. The search for a writer is ongoing on the project, with the filmmaker and studio hoping to start production "quite soon." For those unaware, Them! was a classic film in the atomic-monster subgenre, focusing on radioactive ants that grow in size and travel the country to build new nests. 

"There's always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head," Giacchino told the trade, "For me, that's Them! It wasn't until much later in life until I learned what it was about – the nuclear age. What I love about Them! is exactly what it's called: Them! It's about the other, the unknown which one refuses or can't understand. The current version of Them! is about immigration, and to tell a story about the subject through a lens of this insane science fiction monster movie."

Giacchino confirmed to the trade that he also intends to score the movie as well, something he previously did with Werewolf by Night and his two other short films. In a statement, Warner Bros Pictures President of Production and Development Jesse Ehrman added: "Michael Giacchino is a unique talent. We're excited to be working with him and have him at the studio."

As noted above, Them! was the first in a new trend for sci-fi and horror films of the 1950s, notably movies that were reactions to nuclear war from the decade prior but also which featured giant bugs at the center of it all. Them! would be followed by other notable entries in this specific subgenre including Tarantula, The Black Scorpion, The Deadly Mantis, and Earth vs The Spider. Even more modern movies about giant bugs would pay homage to Them! and its place in the genre.