Shrunken women board

by **Dragonfly Ripple** » Wed May 01, 2024 1:44 am

rscholar wrote: ↑
Wed May 01, 2024 12:16 am
Those are good questions regarding fleshing things out but I'm betting much of that time is going to be spent in flashbacks filling in their lives before the accident.

I'd bet the same. And I think that's where it'll start to come out whether or not he did it on purpose. We know from the story that he resents her hard, bossy demeanor. So was it really an "accident"?

As far as fan attachment for ISW, if we're trying to establish her motive for joining this show, I doubt she has any stronger feelings for it than most - I'm certain she was mainly intrigued by the themes of the husband/wife power dynamics.

I agree that would be the main reason, but it also wouldn't surprise me if this was some kind of subtle homage as well. Tina Fey mentioned in an interview many years ago about how she saw ISW and some other Lily Tomlin stuff as innovatively feminist and inspiring when she was 10-12 years old. When she played a tiny woman in a bar once in an SNL sketch, I thought: Ah-hah, this feels like a Tomlin thing. Elizabeth Banks is only a few years younger than Fey and almost certainly grew up knowing ISW, so who knows.

by **foreverlurk** » Wed May 01, 2024 12:21 am

Dragonfly Ripple wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 30, 2024 7:37 pm
Is she naked the whole time after shredding the clothes she shrank in? Is he supplying her new clothes? Are they doll clothes or made out of Kleenex? What is she eating? Are her friends and co-workers asking about her? Are the flies terrorizing her? Does she have any accidents? Panic attacks?

In the back of my mind I apprehend the disappointment, but there's so much to explore and sometimes it seems like size media isn't taken seriously. Those are all very good questions you ask, that deserve answers. If they want to tackle something as serious as power dynamics, they can't forget those little details - because otherwise, why shrink her at all?! You could have that psychological thriller without shrinking, so if you're doing one with shrinking... use it!

I hope the showrunner lean into the size change and come out with something original, for once.

by **rscholar** » Wed May 01, 2024 12:16 am

Dragonfly Ripple wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 30, 2024 7:37 pm
I've read the story a few times now, and the husband is absolutely an unreliable narrator. I think it's even open to interpretation whether he deliberately shrunk her and then feigned ignorance about not knowing how to reverse the process. Maybe he always wanted her small, was plotting it for years, and now is trying to deny it (to both himself and anyone who might discover what happened) in his journal entries. Almost certainly, a lot of this is going to be interpreted for us in flashbacks.

I don't think I've EVER been more excited for a TV or movie project -- especially the parts they'll need to add to flesh this out into a limited series. Given that it must take the husband a long time to painstakingly build the dollhouse in-universe, it seems like there could be a considerable amount of story time where she's at his mercy trying to live a "normal" life at 3 inches tall before she starts losing it and fighting back. Is she naked the whole time after shredding the clothes she shrank in? Is he supplying her new clothes? Are they doll clothes or made out of Kleenex? What is she eating? Are her friends and co-workers asking about her? Are the flies terrorizing her? Does she have any accidents? Panic attacks? There's a LOT to fill in to paint a complete picture of her mental state and kick off her descent into becoming a ruthless mini pet-slayer. If they do this right, it could be like taking the portion of the Incredible Shrinking Woman where Pat is running around on the countertop, slowly losing her mind, and multiplying it tenfold.

On that subject, I wonder if Elizabeth Banks watched ISW/Lily Tomlin a lot as a kid and has some fan attachment to the premise.

Those are good questions regarding fleshing things out but I'm betting much of that time is going to be spent in flashbacks filling in their lives before the accident.

As far as fan attachment for ISW, if we're trying to establish her motive for joining this show, I doubt she has any stronger feelings for it than most - I'm certain she was mainly intrigued by the themes of the husband/wife power dynamics.

by **Little Sally** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 10:57 pm

Dragonfly Ripple wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 30, 2024 7:37 pm
I've read the story a few times now, and the husband is absolutely an unreliable narrator. I think it's even open to interpretation whether he deliberately shrunk her and then feigned ignorance about not knowing how to reverse the process. Maybe he always wanted her small, was plotting it for years, and now is trying to deny it (to both himself and anyone who might discover what happened) in his journal entries. Almost certainly, a lot of this is going to be interpreted for us in flashbacks... more above

Nice one Dragonfly Ripple, that's an interesting piece of speculation you've provided for us.

I gather whatever device he's used can reduce pretty much anything, so the clothing and food issues will be solvable we can assume. But there still remains a lot of "what" "ifs" and "buts", so it'll be fascinating to see what they do to make the story work (as a mini series).

by **Dragonfly Ripple** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 7:37 pm

I've read the story a few times now, and the husband is absolutely an unreliable narrator. I think it's even open to interpretation whether he deliberately shrunk her and then feigned ignorance about not knowing how to reverse the process. Maybe he always wanted her small, was plotting it for years, and now is trying to deny it (to both himself and anyone who might discover what happened) in his journal entries. Almost certainly, a lot of this is going to be interpreted for us in flashbacks.

I don't think I've EVER been more excited for a TV or movie project -- especially the parts they'll need to add to flesh this out into a limited series. Given that it must take the husband a long time to painstakingly build the dollhouse in-universe, it seems like there could be a considerable amount of story time where she's at his mercy trying to live a "normal" life at 3 inches tall before she starts losing it and fighting back. Is she naked the whole time after shredding the clothes she shrank in? Is he supplying her new clothes? Are they doll clothes or made out of Kleenex? What is she eating? Are her friends and co-workers asking about her? Are the flies terrorizing her? Does she have any accidents? Panic attacks? There's a LOT to fill in to paint a complete picture of her mental state and kick off her descent into becoming a ruthless mini pet-slayer. If they do this right, it could be like taking the portion of the Incredible Shrinking Woman where Pat is running around on the countertop, slowly losing her mind, and multiplying it tenfold.

On that subject, I wonder if Elizabeth Banks watched ISW/Lily Tomlin a lot as a kid and has some fan attachment to the premise.

by **Firewall** » Mon Apr 08, 2024 3:51 am

foreverlurk wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:26 pm

Little Sally wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:50 pm
Just in case we have to wait (and I even curbed my size preferences just for you!)
Thank you, that's very kind and I love it so much!

I'm keeping my expectations low but this would be sooo good.

I'm also going to keep my expectations low. Though Gen V did show that SW can be something we can have more of on the big and small screens. With that said, I'm going to keep the mind set of MJ from the latest Spider-Man movies until we get some footage: Expect disappointment and you'll never be disappointed.

by **ensmallen** » Sat Mar 30, 2024 10:12 pm

They could make the husband a serial shrinker. Flesh out his backstory, he had a troubled childhood, he became a scientist because science gave him the power to fix things and get them the way he couldn't as a kid. Shrinking the wife is just his last desperate attempt to fix his marriage, what does he do if it stays unfixed? Try again with someone else, only he's shifted his fixation from getting relationships right, to getting shrinking women and turning them into compliant pets right.

by **MollySmalls** » Sat Mar 30, 2024 7:41 pm

Amazing work on the Elizabeth Banks SW content. It's almost surreal how incredible of an SW she makes, and the fact that we are actually getting something like this. Given modern day SFX, It just might be some of the best content the community has ever gotten.

After reading the mini-story several times, a few things have come to mind. First off, the storywriters of the Peacock series will have some work to do, to fill out the storyline and make it more interesting for viewers. Some ideas that came to mind that could possibly be implemented (granted this is all dubious speculation and wishful thinking), would be to paint the husband under a bad light, making the viewer sympathize with the shrunken wife and her perspective. One way they could do that would be to write in a flirtatious "friend of the family", a woman who has a thing for the husband and jumps in when she finds out Elizabeth's character is shrunken. Sparking an all out war between not only the husband, but the woman as well. Interaction between the two would be hostile, if the mistress ever catches the shrunken wife. Or if the wife seeks revenge while the woman is at the house, like setting traps for her, putting things in her shoes to step on etc.

The way most narratives are nowadays, I believe they will make the husband seem very chauvinistic, and find ways to empower the wife. One thing is for sure, the writers of the series have a lot of screen adaptation ahead of them. Which direction they choose will be interesting to see play out.

by **eddiegiantman** » Sat Mar 30, 2024 4:16 pm

Who are you ? wrote: ↑
Sat Mar 30, 2024 1:42 pm
I wonder how the special effects people in Hollywood have reacted to the last three years with AI. Today, almost anyone can generate anything at home, so the special effects (and of course the story) have to step up a gear so that no one at home says ... "I could have done that".

Your image links might be broken Who.

Jeebus wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 29, 2024 5:51 pm
I can't wait, either! No release date on the page, has anyone seen anything about a timeline? And forgot to say, that's a great picture, too, Bob!

Likely since they just gave the greenlight, 2nd half of 2025 to 2026 probably.

by **Who are you ?** » Sat Mar 30, 2024 1:42 pm

I wonder how the special effects people in Hollywood have reacted to the last three years with AI. Today, almost anyone can generate anything at home, so the special effects (and of course the story) have to step up a gear so that no one at home says ... "I could have done that".

(two different image hosts now, one should work)

by **Jeebus** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 5:51 pm

I can't wait, either! No release date on the page, has anyone seen anything about a timeline? And forgot to say, that's a great picture, too, Bob!

by **scidram** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 5:45 pm

Sally & Bob,

Thanks for those pics and for whetting our appetite for however long we'll have to wait!

It's got an IMDB page now, with this great description: "A technological accident serves as a catalyst for Lindy and Les, a married couple, to re-evaluate their relationship's power dynamics, leading to a dramatic showdown as they vie for control in their marriage."

Can I say again that I can't wait? I think I have to.

I CAN'T WAIT!

by **Jeebus** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 5:23 pm

Little Sally wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:50 pm

foreverlurk wrote: ↑
Tue Mar 26, 2024 6:40 pm
Then again, I'm not expecting too much but just a nice handheld would be wonderful.
Just in case we have to wait (and I even curbed my size preferences just for you!)

This is getting me so stoked. Really nice pic!! It's a shame that media seems to shy away from anything bigger than an an inch or two. Here's hoping they ignore the 3 inch limit and grab a tall coffee mug.

Bobascher wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:57 pm
I hope the moment of shrinking is really intense. That first interaction is the pièce de résistance for me.

Could not agree more. If anyone can pull this off with the realism and enthusiasm it requires, it's Elizabeth Banks. She's got serious range and acting talent, and as others have pointed out, a penchant for the absurd. I'm reminded of Zack & Miri where she's thrust into an unfamiliar world, and reacts with very believable honesty and humor.

She was actually cast as Ms. Frizzle for a live-action remake that never was, so who knows, this may even be a passion piece for her. But I know that's a stretch, and don't want to speculate.

by **Little Sally** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 4:37 pm

Bobascher wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:57 pm
I hope the moment of shrinking is really intense. That first interaction is the pièce de résistance for me.
(image)

by **Bobascher** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:57 pm

I hope the moment of shrinking is really intense. That first interaction is the pièce de résistance for me.

by **Little Sally** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:39 pm

Aussie_Lurker wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 29, 2024 1:28 pm
That is an AMAZING pic!!!

foreverlurk wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:26 pm
Thank you, that's very kind and I love it so much!

I'm keeping my expectations low but this would be sooo good.

Thanks Aussie and Forever, it's a fun idea isn't it (and thanks to Elizabeth for just the right amount of sass!)

I really hope we'll get something similar when the show appears.

by **foreverlurk** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:26 pm

Little Sally wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:50 pm
Just in case we have to wait (and I even curbed my size preferences just for you!)

Thank you, that's very kind and I love it so much!

I'm keeping my expectations low but this would be sooo good.

by **Aussie_Lurker** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 1:28 pm

Little Sally wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:50 pm

foreverlurk wrote: ↑
Tue Mar 26, 2024 6:40 pm
Then again, I'm not expecting too much but just a nice handheld would be wonderful.
Just in case we have to wait (and I even curbed my size preferences just for you!)

That is an AMAZING pic!!!

by **Little Sally** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:50 pm

foreverlurk wrote: ↑
Tue Mar 26, 2024 6:40 pm
Then again, I'm not expecting too much but just a nice handheld would be wonderful.

Just in case we have to wait (and I even curbed my size preferences just for you!)

And perhaps a better view here: https://www.deviantart.com/stash/0enhbana7qt

by **rscholar** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 1:42 am

"The idea was almost killed until producer Nancy Lopez saved it with one sentence: "This story is an allegory about the minimization of women." The lightbulb went off for the group."

How....did no one catch on to that? And I don't mean the physical shrinking - it's a husband feeling reproached by a woman he feels is always mean; he takes pride in the "softening" of her features in how he essentially feminized her into a form he enjoys; he completely shuts her in because he's paranoid of unfounded accusations of cheating; her fighting back and going rogue both unfeminizes her body and eventually drives her insane, making her hard and even sadistic, all driven by his actions and inaction until she loses her humanity.

For God's sake, the entire story is from the husband's voice, so anytime she speaks is either secondhand through him or via post-it notes - in short, *she doesn't have a voice.*

It's... it's right there.

by **ensmallen** » Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:44 am

Alright, found this interview with the author about a previous adaptation:
https://thesarahawards.com/article/2016 ... snap-world

1. Says he's open to changes necessary for another medium.
2. The WIFE is the main character. What he says about telling the story from her point of view has me giddy.
3. The husband's narration is "misleading". He's self-deluded. He's saying one thing when really something else is going on.
4. For the radioplay, he accepted the producer's suggestion the story is an allegory about the "minimization of women". No idea the streaming series runs with that take but the author is obviously open to ideas.

SpoilerShow

Manuel: I think one of the elements of “The Miniature Wife” that allowed it to work so well as a radio play is that it has a strong main character voice, which, without any visual aid, allows an image of the character, her world, and her fraught situation to come to life.

Manuel: One of the biggest differences I noticed between the short story I wrote and the radio play adaptation was the tangible presence of the miniature wife herself. In the story, the wife is an overly large presence, but she’s never given a voice, and the reader never sees this world from her point of view; it is all told (misleadingly) from the husband’s point of view. While this works well for a short story, where the point of the story is to live in the mind of the narrator and to slowly come to realize his self-delusion, a radio play requires scenes that involve characters interacting.

Manuel: The adaptation gives the story a new and different and compelling life, and it bolsters my hope that the story I wrote was rendered well enough to become its own realized world, inhabited by actual people with actual voices acting in ways I had only begun to imagine on my own.

by **Little Sally** » Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:32 pm

rscholar wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:01 pm
Bank's character as written comes off like a border-line ninja - the author doesn't bother to explain how some things like her hauling a full-sized dead cat onto the husband's bed is physically possible, he just kind of points it out and moves on -

Is it possible the cat might have been asleep on the bed when she killed it?

Not trying to be flippant. It was just a thought I had.

by **rscholar** » Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:01 pm

Bobascher wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 28, 2024 5:46 am

rscholar wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 28, 2024 4:15 am
....also, the GTS crowd is getting a AOTFFW remake, we could use a win (Emma from Gen V, great as she was, doesn't really count since she can also grow).
What do you mean it doesn’t count? A blonde 4” tall woman humping a dick on a mainstream, popular streamer. It’s more than this community could ever hope for.

You're right, I just didn't want anyone to have to point it out when I talk about getting a win. I don't want to undersell what Gen V gave us, certainly, but, once we found out she could grow, in a sense it became something that wasn't exclusively ours either. My main point was I really really REALLY don't want something this exciting to end up being a gender-swap rug-pull like the previous comment suggested.

Prof Sai wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:03 am

rscholar wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 28, 2024 4:15 am
You don't get much more "girl-power-ish" than that.
With girl-power comes girl-responsibility. That story is basically a horror film with the girl as the killer. That doesn't empower anyone.

Unfortunately, that's what "power" seems to mean these days. You're absolutely right that this is going to come off as creepy - the actor playing the husband apparently has a flair for portraying paranoia so being stalked by a stealthy murder-doll sounds right up his alley - and I think by stepping back and looking at it all the story is supposed to read like a tragedy where no one is really in the right. However, like I said, Bank's character as written comes off like a border-line ninja - the author doesn't bother to explain how some things like her hauling a full-sized dead cat onto the husband's bed is physically possible, he just kind of points it out and moves on - and in a shallow way that's the kind of underdog scenario where the woman discovers her power and defeats the man controlling her life that would likely appeal to someone like Banks who 's projects are often female-centered. I don't want to get too much into the weeds of what the subtext of this all could be, but that's my observation.

by **Little Sally** » Thu Mar 28, 2024 5:06 pm

We don't know too much about what they'll do with the story yet.. But some of these comments make for darned good reading!

Well done all!

by **DocRick** » Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:48 pm

Aussie_Lurker wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:56 am

Bobascher wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:51 am
Not to throw cold water, but be prepared for a gender swap. Banks plays very strong women characters and I can see them spinning an emasculated husband story instead. Showing in flashbacks what a control freak he was to provide a more complete role swap.

I wouldn’t want that, but that’s where my mind sees them going with it…
If they were gonna gender swap it, then why call it "The Miniature Wife"? I think you may be being just a little bit too cynical this time.

Not to defend Bob's normal pessimisms, but I interpret his statement as the husband is a control freak, but the wife's strong personality inhibits his ability to control her. Now that she is shrunk, she is unable to, physically as well as emotionally, prevent him from having the control over her that he has always desired. Her ability to resist his attempts to control her is diminished, while his control over her is increased. Societal stereotypes are the husband being the "head of the household" and the wife subservient to him, so not a true gender swap, this sounds more like a domineering wife and a "whipped" husband reversing their hierarchy and possibly his inability to deal with it even though he had always fantasized about it.

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