Likely to blend elements of this summer’s massive hit Jurassic World with the size-changing special effects fun of Marvel’s upcoming Ant-Man, DreamWorks Studios has just announced that they have acquired the film rights to the Michael Crichton novel Micro. Frank Marshall is on board to produce, with Sherri Crichton and Laurent Bouzereau set as executive producers for CrichtonSun LLC.
The high-concept thriller follows a group of graduate students lured to Hawaii to work for a mysterious biotech company—only to find themselves miniaturized and cast out into the rain forest, with nothing but their scientific expertise and wits to protect them.
Micro was unfinished when Michael Crichton passed away in 2008, but was later completed by author Richard Preston and published by HarperCollins in 2011. It was a New York Times bestseller and spent over 20 weeks combined on the list in hardcover and paperback.
“We are so pleased to have this opportunity to develop ‘Micro,’” says Steven Spielberg. “For Michael, size did matter whether it was for ‘Jurassic’s’ huge dinosaurs or ‘Micro’s’ infinitely tiny humans.”
“Michael Crichton’s vast body of work has thrilled audiences around the world for decades, and it feels particularly poignant to be bringing his last published novel to DreamWorks,” adds DreamWorks CEO Michael Wright. “This is the perfect place to unite these two dynamic brands.”
“Michael was exhilarated, passionate and invested in ‘Micro,’ a story he spent years researching and developing,” said Sherri Crichton. “It was yet another opportunity for him to explore the clash between science and nature, as seen through the eyes of relatable characters. Michael also wrote in cinematic terms and would be so pleased to see ‘Micro’ come to life on the big screen at DreamWorks.”
In 2009, DreamWorks Studios acquired the rights to another posthumously published Crichton novel, Pirate Latitudes.
