Part of what makes so many sci-fi and horror movies from the ’50s and ’60s so beloved is that they suffered from a variety of financial limitations, which almost immediately dated them when they were unleashed. Due to the rudimentary visual effects and production budgets, this often meant a movie succeeded on the merits of the narrative concepts it aimed to explore, with a number of classics from the era also being beloved solely based on schlock appeal. One seminal movie from that era is 1954’s Them!, which was previously announced as getting a remake from Werewolf by Night director Michael Giacchino.
Given the movie’s premise, which is essentially about giant ants terrorizing a community, it’s hard to imagine how such a movie would be revived for a modern generation. The remake was announced back in 2023, and those concerns about updating the concept might be why there’s been no significant momentum on the project since those first reports.
Speaking with Screen Rant, Giacchino noted that scheduling conflicts have prevented the project from moving forward, as has the merger between Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount. Giacchino explained to the outlet, “Now that the dust is sort of settling, we’re re-getting into it and my hope is that, yes, this is a movie that will get made and we’re doing the best we can.”
This is one of the first significant updates on the project since it was first announced, with it being revealed in 2025 that The Batman‘s Matt Reeves had boarded the project as a producer. In addition to the behind-the-scenes mergers of studios, the pair being quite busy on other projects understandably caused delays in their new Them!.
“There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head,” Giacchino told Deadline when the project was first announced. “For me, that’s Them!. It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about — the nuclear age.”
The movie was about a small community in New Mexico that came under attack from nuclear-irradiated giant ants. Them! is only one of many movies about the impact of nuclear weapons on the natural world, with Godzilla also belonging to that subgenre.
“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 filmmaker added. “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.”
Stay tuned for updates on the new Them!.
Are you hoping the project finally movies forward? Let us know in the comments below!
