I absolutely adore Jack Arnold's The Incredible Shrinking Man. I think it's without question one of the finest science fiction movies ever made. Not only does it have an endlessly fascinating story, but the 1957 film is also smart, sad and scary ... plus it has one of the most wonderfully thought-provoking endings I've ever seen. And since I love this movie so darn much, I couldn't stop weeping as I read this recent news piece at The Hollywood Reporter...

Not only is Universal (stupidly) intent on turning The Incredible Shrinking Man into a comedy (because that worked so damn well on The Stepford Wives), and not only are they planning to give the lead role to Eddie Murphy ... but things just got a whole lot worse. First off, the newest screenwriters to climb on board are Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, two guys who proved their comedy chops on The State and Reno 911 -- and then obliterated those chops by writing the screenplays for Herbie: Fully Loaded, Taxi, Balls of Fury, Night at the Museum, The Pacifier and Let's Go to Prison. Surely these are the men who should re-write one of the best sci-fi movies ever made.

Oh, but it gets even better! Although Keenan Ivory Wayans and Pete Segal had been attached to the project at one point or another, it looks like Universal now wants Brett Ratner to direct this horrid idea. Now, I'm not one of those film nerds who thinks that Brett Ratner is the worst director ever born (far from it, actually), but nor do I think he's all that exciting of a filmmaker. I just can't believe that such a beautiful little sci-fi gem is being morphed into this sort of misguided train wreck.

OK, first off: Yipppeee!!! You guys have no idea how thrilled I am about this latest piece of DVD geekery: My #1 all-time favorite old-school sci-fi movie, Jack Arnold's The Incredible Shrinking Man, is finally coming to DVD! Hooray! But then the news gets a little weirder: You'll only be able to get the DVD from Best Buy ... plus it comes attached to four other movies. Huh?

The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection will be a Best Buy exclusive on September 19th, and the three-disc set contains the following films: Tarantula (1955), The Mole People (1956), The Monolith Monsters (1957), Monster on the Campus (1958) and 1957's supremely awesome, Matheson-penned, killer-housecatted, giant-spider-laden The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Random info: Four of the five Collection movies have Jack Arnold's name on them somewhere, be it as writer or director. Also, this set marks the digital debut of all five flicks, which is always nice to see. The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection (or, as I call it: The Incredible Shrinking Man and Some Other Fun Stuff) will run you 20 clams pus tax -- a small price to pay for a true-blue classic and a bunch of Saturday afternoon matinees.

And I really hate to complain, but ... c'mon, Universal. The Incredible Shrinking Man is a science fiction classic on par with The War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still and ... Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. (I'm kidding about the last one!) Surely a movie as well-regarded as The Incredible Shrinking Man would warrant its own 2-disc Special Edition?? (Can you believe it? I go from amazingly thrilled to ungrateful and greedy in less than 300 seconds. What a jerk I am.)

[Thanks to DavisDVD.com for the tip!!]

Did you guys know that Jack Arnold's The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) has never been released on DVD? That's right: One of the most imaginative, intelligent, and thought-provoking science fiction films of all time (yes, I said all time) is still sitting in some vault collecting dust, while genre contemporaries like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds, and The Day the Earth Stood Still have all hit DVD sporting all sorts of well-deserved bells & whistles. Directed by Black Lagoon's Jack Arnold and penned by certified ultra-genius Richard Matheson, The Incredible Shrinking Man stands as one of the most influential movies in the history of Weinberg. Plus all that stuff with the cat, the spider, and the dollhouse ... awesome.

So this got me to thinking about other movies that I loved as a kid, most of which (stuff like 1941 and Jaws 2 and The Goonies) already have a home on a special little DVD shelf all their own -- but SOME of which have never seen life as a shiny digital disc! For example, how is it that we can get 11 different versions of (the truly awesome) Evil Dead 2 -- yet The Incredible freakin' Shrinking Man remains DVD MIA?? I actually have a theory on this one: Universal owns the rights to Shrinking Man, and that studio has spent several years trying to cobble together a remake with Keenen Ivory Wayans as the director. One can only assume that Uni is waiting for that retread to bear box office fruit before releasing the original film on DVD as a "tie-in," which (obviously) annoys me to no end.

So listed below in this most recent edition of Cinematical Seven are a bunch of semi-obscure 1980s horror movies that I'd really like to see on DVD. Why switch over from The Incredible Shrinking Man to the generally unpleasant topic of "forgotten 1980s horror movies?" Because a wise man once said "write what you know," and I know very, very little outside the realm of 1980s horror movies. (OK, and Futurama and Halo ... and The Phillies. I know a lot about those things, too.)