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Amphibian Man To Woo Audiences Thanks to Stone Village

by Kevin Powers
August 12, 2008

Who knew that one of the "most popular Russian [film] properties in history" is a based on a 1928 novel called "The Amphibian?" I sure didn't. Despite the big-screen, history-making adaptation called Amphibian Man back in 1962, the material is making waves today with an announcement that production company Stone Village (Turistas, The Human Stain) has acquired the film and publishing rights to the story. Part of the plot deals with an "American surgeon living in the Amazon who gives his son shark gills to survive a fatal respiratory disease." This alone sounds like a pretty kickin' sci-fi story. However, the other half of Amphibian Man isn't so intriguing to me - "the young man's underwater life is complicated when he saves a local fisherman's daughter from a shark attack and romantic feelings surface between them."

Sadly, the production company's head, Scott Steindorff, says that the "sci-fi elements will remain as a backdrop to the film's dramatic and comedic love story, which he likens to Splash meets Forrest Gump." That's a really odd combination if you ask me, but I suppose amphibious cross-breeding can have a place in one's heart. Steindorff, who also produced Love in the Time of Cholera, is presently looking for a screenwriter to adapt the "romantic adventure drama." The water-breathing critter I'm most looking forward to seeing next is Breck Eisner's Creature from the Black Lagoon, that we mentioned was being remade back in May. But with the addition of the Amphibian Man remake to the roster of upcoming films, audiences will get to see both a gentle and ghoulish side to this kind of character. Which do you prefer?

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