Michael Giacchino to direct Them! reboot

Michael Giacchino will make his big-screen directorial debut on a remake of 'Them!'.

The 55-year-old composer, who won an Academy Award for his work on the 2009 animated film 'Up', is working on a reboot of the 1954 sci-fi monster movie for Warner Bros.

Michael is meeting with writers in the hope of starting production on the project in the near future.

The original movie was helmed by Gordon Douglas and the plot centres around the discovery of a huge nest of irradiated ants in the New Mexico desert.

The critters become a national threat when two young queen ants and their consorts escape to set up new nests, with the national search that follows culminating in a battle in the storm drains of Los Angeles.

The composer told Deadline: "There's always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head. For me, that's 'Them!' It wasn't until much later in life until I learned what it was about – the nuclear age."

Giacchino added: "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."

Michael has composed blockbusters such as 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' and 'The Batman' but has long been looking to direct a movie of his own.

He got behind the camera last year on the Marvel Studios/Disney+ special 'Werewolf by Night', which followed a superhero who fights evil using the abilities given to him by a curse brought on by his bloodline.

Michael has also directed the short 'Monster Challenge' and an episode of the TV series 'Star Trek: Short Treks'.