German director Oliver Hirschbiegel (”Downfall”) will direct Warner Bros. planned remake of the classic sci-fi tale “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.

Written by Dave Kajganich, the new version centers on a female protagonist who uncovers a conspiracy in a small town where the inhabitants’ personalities seem to be changing.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers began as a serial novel and became two well-known motion pictures: a1956 film by Don Siegel and a 1978 remake by Philip Kaufman that starred the likes of Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy.
As well as one lesser-known 1993 film, starring Terry Kinney, Meg Tilly and R. Lee Ermey. And now it appears we could have a fourth Invasion on our hands.

In Don Siegel’s original 1956 sci-fi/horror film, hysteria spreads through a small California town after townspeople appear to their relatives and friends as strangers while retaining their outward appearances. Aliens who take over the bodies of sleeping humans is actually a jet-black satire of McCarthyism and 1950s conservatism.

The studio owns the remake rights to the film after making 1993’s Body Snatchers, directed by Abel Ferrara.

Production on the new version will start this October in Baltimore. Casting for the role would be mere speculation at this point.