Elizabeth Banks to Star in "The Miniature Wife"

[MollySmalls]

Not sure about you but....a frustrated shrunken woman really does it for me. To see someone go from everyday normal living (in this situation, being a beloved housewife) to unexpectedly shrinking to 3-inches tall and becoming furious at being shrunk is an incredible turn-on. In this case, Elizabeth Banks playing an normal everyday housewife, then unexplainably shrinks! Seeing her frustrations at her new tiny size, which were once powerful and threatening, become more so amusing and entertaining at her new tiny size (such a turn-on).

Here's an excerpt from "The Miniature Wife" which I'd absolutely love to see play out with how incredible modern SFXs have gotten (look at Gen-V for God Sake!)

"She screamed, but I couldn’t hear her. Then she took her purse off her shoulder and threw it at me. She threw it hard, so it seemed, but a person the size of a coffee mug can only do so much damage. Unable to hit me, then, and with nothing else in reach, she attacked herself, or, rather, her clothing. In a matter of seconds, she’d torn off her skirt, ripped through it with her teeth, ripped the shirt off her back, thrashed at her panty-hose, and broke the heels off her shoes. Then she grabbed her purse again and dumped out everything in it, and, there, found a lighter. Before I could move to stop her, she set the small pile of clothes on fire, then stamped at them, and then kicked them off the edge of the table.

It was quite a display."

Elizabeth Banks will be 3 inches tall while doing all of this. How hot is that! IDK, I normally don't get my hopes up. But I have faith they will do this series and this scene in particular justice.

[Sdk]

Not sure about you but....a frustrated shrunken woman really does it for me. To see someone go from everyday normal living (in this situation, being a beloved housewife) to unexpectedly shrinking to 3-inches tall and becoming furious at being shrunk is an incredible turn-on. In this case, Elizabeth Banks playing an normal everyday housewife, then unexplainably shrinks! Seeing her frustrations at her new tiny size, which were once powerful and threatening, become more so amusing and entertaining at her new tiny size.

Here's an excerpt from "The Miniature Wife" which I'd absolutely love to see play out with how incredible modern SFXs have gotten -

"She screamed, but I couldn’t hear her. Then she took her purse off her shoulder and threw it at me. She threw it hard, so it seemed, but a person the size of a coffee mug can only do so much damage. Unable to hit me, then, and with nothing else in reach, she attacked herself, or, rather, her clothing. In a matter of seconds, she’d torn off her skirt, ripped through it with her teeth, ripped the shirt off her back, thrashed at her panty-hose, and broke the heels off her shoes. Then she grabbed her purse again and dumped out everything in it, and, there, found a lighter. Before I could move to stop her, she set the small pile of clothes on fire, then stamped at them, and then kicked them off the edge of the table.

It was quite a display."

Elizabeth Banks will be 3 inches while doing all of this. How hot is that! IDK, I normally don't get my hopes up. But I have faith they will do this series and this scene in particular justice.

That would be amazing.

[foreverlurk]

Not sure about you but....a frustrated shrunken woman really does it for me.

Hell yeah, I'm so tired of shrinking being used solely for comedic relief, or not taken seriously at all... like the shrunken characters being almost apathetic to such a fundamental change. I'm 100% on board with the author's take and I hope they'll follow the path laid by the story (albeit with a touch of dark humour, probably).

[MollySmalls]

Not sure about you but....a frustrated shrunken woman really does it for me.

Hell yeah, I'm so tired of shrinking being used solely for comedic relief, or not taken seriously at all... like the shrunken characters being almost apathetic to such a fundamental change. I'm 100% on board with the author's take and I hope they'll follow the path laid by the story (albeit with a touch of dark humour, probably).

I was reading somewhere that NBC classified "The Miniature Wife" under straight-to-stream, which essentially is NBC's way of backing a production, knowing it will perform well. I'm assuming the pilot was incredibly entertaining, the dynamics between husband and wife, very relatable but with a modern aged sci-fi twist.

I also came across this (https://www.npr.org/2015/04/24/401965825/miniature-wife) while researching, a 10 minute listen with pretty nice voice actors. Hearing the wife's frustrated tone in the reading gives hope, that it will translate in a similar tone on Peacock!

[Prof Sai]

Elizabeth Banks will be 3 inches tall while doing all of this. How hot is that! IDK, I normally don't get my hopes up. But I have faith they will do this series and this scene in particular justice.

I doubt they will do that. I see two problems:

1) It's all from the male's POV, and the behavior of the shrunken woman is left baffling the whole time. (I suspected it was some kind of brain damage.)
2) She is off screen for the second and third act - we only see the effects of her actions, which are all quite cruel. Not much fun.
3) The creators describe this as "a shift in power dynamic" in the relationship. That's a toxic view of how relationships work. So I worry that they are going to invent all sorts of horrible things about the male to make him justify what she does. Thus it will be a story about two reprehensible people. I'm so sick of that.

[DocRick]

Okay, I must admit my technological ignorance.....what is Peacock? I assume it is affiliated with NBC, but will this show be shown on "regular" television or on a subscriber system, like Netflicks?

[Little Sally]

I also came across this (https://www.npr.org/2015/04/24/401965825/miniature-wife) while researching, a 10 minute listen with pretty nice voice actors. Hearing the wife's frustrated tone in the reading gives hope, that it will translate in a similar tone on Peacock!

It's certainly novel to hear (and read) a dramatisation like that about shrinking, even though it paints a pretty bleak picture of a relationship. What puzzles me though, is if you're going to shrink your wife, then why be so cruel to make her so darn small that she's almost physically insignificant? Or maybe that's the whole point. To make her even more frustrated and resentful perhaps.

I dunno, but I feel it would make more sense to have reduced her to a size where she had a bit more 'presence' (like around 7 to 10 inches), then at least there'd be a chance of some meaningful physical contact between them both. And it could still be a dark scenario, but with the hope their relationship wasn't doomed like it might be in the original idea.

Elizabeth Banks will be 3 inches tall while doing all of this. How hot is that! IDK, I normally don't get my hopes up. But I have faith they will do this series and this scene in particular justice.

I doubt they will do that. I see two problems:

1) It's all from the male's POV, and the behavior of the shrunken woman is left baffling the whole time. (I suspected it was some kind of brain damage.)
2) She is off screen for the second and third act - we only see the effects of her actions, which are all quite cruel. Not much fun.
3) The creators describe this as "a shift in power dynamic" in the relationship. That's a toxic view of how relationships work. So I worry that they are going to invent all sorts of horrible things about the male to make him justify what she does. Thus it will be a story about two reprehensible people. I'm so sick of that.

Yes, I think I'm leaning your way about this. It's painting a pretty dismal picture so far.

But hey, maybe when the thing is aired it might be less so. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[foreverlurk]

I dunno, but I feel it would make more sense to have reduced her to a size where she had a bit more 'presence' (like around 7 to 10 inches), then at least there'd be a chance of some meaningful physical contact between them both.

I think you are projecting your own size preferences too much into this - it's just a fantasy and in my mind, meaningful contact is still possible at three inches tall - harder, but not impossible. Also, 3-4 inches is the height a lot of SW I know desire. Either way, we're not even sure they'll keep to the story's original size, even less if the special effects will make her height constant (minor detail but annoying).

2) She is off screen for the second and third act - we only see the effects of her actions, which are all quite cruel. Not much fun.

I don't think they'll have their star stay off-screen for 2/3 of the episodes, that's why I'm thinking they're going to adapt the story to some extent.

[Little Sally]

I dunno, but I feel it would make more sense to have reduced her to a size where she had a bit more 'presence' (like around 7 to 10 inches), then at least there'd be a chance of some meaningful physical contact between them both.

I think you are projecting your own size preferences too much into this - it's just a fantasy and in my mind, meaningful contact is still possible at three inches tall - harder, but not impossible. Also, 3-4 inches is the height a lot of SW I know desire. Either way, we're not even sure they'll keep to the story's original size, even less if the special effects will make her height constant (minor detail but annoying).

Yes, I guess I am guilty of that (the size preference thing), but not to the extent of trying to preach that my size tastes are right. It's just the way I see how the project could become more interesting in my own view, and I suspect they've not thought it through in that way.

Also, 3-4 inches is the height a lot of SW I know desire.

Well, I guess you're lucky to know such 'women'.

But anyway, I suppose it will be interesting to see what sort of product we'll end up with.

[eddiegiantman]

Okay, I must admit my technological ignorance.....what is Peacock? I assume it is affiliated with NBC, but will this show be shown on "regular" television or on a subscriber system, like Netflicks?

Basically the Universal Netflix like Disney+ to Disney and Amazon's Prime Video.

I wonder if each episode will have her at a different size. Would make sense. Depends on a how long this will be for a miniseries.

I do hope this goes forward after the deflating of Shrunk on Disney+.

[scidram]

Time will tell.

I think there'd be more of a wow factor if they televised "Desperate Measures".

Which has a far better scenario, and size of the shrunken subject.

Aw... how sweet of you to say.

And if anyone ever approached me to televise that, it would definitely get a big WOW from me!

I don't think they'll have their star stay off-screen for 2/3 of the episodes, that's why I'm thinking they're going to adapt the story to some extent.

Agreed. They're not gonna keep someone like Elizabeth Banks off screen. She's kinda quirky--she directed Cocaine Bear after all--so I expect she's game for being featured tiny for a good chunk of this series. I also expect there to be flashbacks to before she was miniaturized to expand upon the story and develop the characters.

I so can't wait for this!

[Bobascher]

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…

[eddiegiantman]

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…

My guess they play it straight anyways, the husband in the story wasn't a evil husband but he wasn't nice either.

[rscholar]

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…

I get where you're coming from and it would seem weird to think Banks specifically would want to be involved, but keep in mind where it ends up going: she *starts* out helpless and at the mercy of her increasingly distant and controlling husband; it *ends* with her becoming mini-Rambo who kills a cat and leaves its corpse as a warning and eventually gets the better of her giant husband on her own. You don't get much more "girl-power-ish" than that.

....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).

[Bobascher]

....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.

At the end of the day, they will make what sells. I’m just trying to not get excited since I’m sure it won’t be what folks want and then they’ll be a lot of pissing and moaning.

[Prof Sai]

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.

[Aussie_Lurker]

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.

[ensmallen]

It's not quite ready for prime time, but SORA has incredible potential for sizey stuff. I've seen the latest demos and I can't wait to get my hands on it (I doubt it'll be cheap, though).

AI was a/THE big sticking point during the actors' and writers' strikes very recently. This concept is so out of the norm the conspiracy nut in me's thinking it's quietly a trial horse for NBC and the big players to normalize the technology. It's just too good to be true I have to believe there's something else going on. Like suddenly people like NBC and Amazon's shopping for ideas that absolutely demand pushing the limits to realize as an excuse to insert more and more AI in everything.

Of course people like OpenAI benefit from that, like, maybe even SORA suddenly coming out's the impetus for ideas like this to get greenlighted. Or more likely it's NBC and the rest of the industry creating the demand that's the reason OpenAI's developed SORA in the first place. Implying there's a super-SORA out there with capabilities the rest of us can only guess at. Obviously the product accessible to most people won't be nerfed for someone with deep-enough pockets. I could go on and on, interesting time to be into SW.

[ensmallen]

Yes, I'm sure they'll stretch it out with lots of stuff we aren't expecting, but I won't be holding my breath for anything too erotic (hope I'm wrong though).

Well in the story when she shrinks she ends up naked, but otherwise that's not really the focus of the story. Then again, I'm not expecting too much but just a nice handheld would be wonderful.

By erotic I wasn't meaning anything sexual per se, but maybe some darker undertones of the situation in which she finds herself. Like loss of independance, power, and reliance (or otherwise) on someone else. Should be interesting what they do with the theme though.

It's a good thing Elizabeth Banks is the name attached, since they'll have to do big rewrites to bring in any of that. The story has "Wife" in the title but the story's overwhelmingly about the husband.

We learn a lot about him and his achievements (he either created or is a leading expert in the shrinking technology) but the wife basically exists as an excuse to present obstacles to overcome. Like building the dollhouse for her perceived needs or dealing with her mental state (which we only hear about from his perspective). Somehow the wife becomes more attractive shrunk, which the husband takes credit for.

SpoilerShow

She is not unattractive, my wife, in her miniaturized state. Her best features—her waist, the round curve of her hips, her shapely legs and fine eyebrows—are there still, undiminished by her diminished size. But what’s more—and more surprising—her more difficult-to-reconcile features have softened. The hard, reproachful look in her eyes. The often angry or disappointed set of her jaw. Her rather large feet. All of her should have reduced proportionately, and maybe it all has and this is but a trick of the mind, but one night, as she slept in the small, makeshift bed I made for her—matchbox, tufts of cotton, stitched squares of felt—I crept up on her and spied on her with a magnifying glass—I own quite a number of very good glasses—and it seemed to me that something in the process of miniaturization had enhanced the look of her.

As much as I hate to admit it, I felt some pride in this. One of the many complaints we face in my office is that in the process of miniaturizing a thing, we rub out the details of it. For the past two years, we’ve been working diligently to develop—across all of our miniaturization processes—an ability to retain the sharp and necessary details, the inherent beauty, the power of a thing’s function even when shrunk down to the size of a cup, a blade of grass, a grain of sand.

Gazing down at my wife through my magnifying glass, I could see that we had finally found some measure of success.

I think the point of the story's depicting misogyny, the casual kind everyone overlooks. What I expect is a story running on two tracks, the original work following the husband, and a new one written for the show. Following the wife (before and after she gets shrunk) to show what we're missing from the husband's take. No way someone played by Elizabeth Banks exists without a job or meaningful friends like we hear the husband say. What I expect is the show exposing him as an unreliable narrator.

SpoilerShow

I miss my wife. It’s strange, though, since, technically, she is here with me. Is in the house, anyway, though I don’t know where, exactly, or what she’s doing. It’s as if she has gone away for business—though she doesn’t have a job to speak of—or on an extended vacation with a group of girlfriends, though she doesn’t have that, either.

[DocRick]

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.

[Little Sally]

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!

[rscholar]

....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.

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.

[Little Sally]

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.

[ensmallen]

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.

[rscholar]

"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.