Beyond Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, one of the most enduring and unnerving horror stories ever adapted is Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The iconic 1956 Don Siegel original still lands its punches nearly 70 years later, the superb 1978 Philip Kaufman remake remains arguably the best version, and Abel Ferrara’s criminally overlooked 1993 adaptation deserves a real reappraisal. Which brings us to the fourth iteration: 2007’s The Invasion, a painfully PG-13 adaptation of the classic sci-fi/horror tale that not only insults the source material, but doesn’t deserve to be mentioned alongside the previous versions.
For the great Nicole Kidman, no stranger to genuinely unnerving horror films like The Others, Dead Calm, and even Eyes Wide Shut, the movie’s critical and financial face-plant is even more stark. What big-name talent did the studio bring in for rewrites and reshoots? Who almost landed the lead role? And which cast member ended up in the hospital after a crash gone wrong? With all that and more, it’s time to dig in and find out what happened to The Invasion nearly 20 years ago.
Development
The film’s development dates back to March 2004, when Warner Bros. hired first-time screenwriter David Kajganich to adapt Finney’s timeless sci-fi horror novel The Body Snatchers. Kajganich had written a horror spec script titled Town Creek for Warner Bros. in 2003, which impressed the studio enough to bring him back for the new adaptation. (The script eventually became Blood Creek, directed by the late Joel Schumacher, released in 2009.)
By July 2005, German director Oliver Hirschbiegel had been recruited to helm The Invasion, with filming planned for Edgemere, Maryland. Just two months later, Nicole Kidman was cast as psychiatrist Carol Bennell, securing a massive $17 million paycheck. Other actresses considered for the role included Jessica Lange, Elizabeth Mitchell, Rachel McAdams, and Reese Witherspoon. Shortly after Kidman’s casting, a pre-Bond Daniel Craig joined the project as Dr. Ben Driscoll. Veronica Cartwright, who appears in the film as Wendy Lenk, famously played Nancy Bellicec in the 1978 adaptation.
While Kidman’s salary created budget concerns, the project’s biggest issue from day one was the muddled story. Kajganich intended his script to be a remake, but also wanted it to stand as a modern, original reinvention. To that end, he wrote a new premise and pitched it to Warner Bros. as a contemporary proof-of-concept, updating the classic tale with a sentient alien fungus as the spreading contagion.
As Kajganich explained: “You just have to look around our world today to see that power inspires nothing more than the desire to retain it and to eliminate anything that threatens it.”
Despite the lofty intentions, the screenplay only became more confused and thematically tangled. Kajganich set the story in Washington, D.C. to mirror themes of power, alienation, and political takeover, playing off the 1956 original’s allegorical relationship to Cold War paranoia and the fear of losing individuality. But America in 2007 was a very different landscape from the McCarthy-era 1950s, and much of the allegory failed to translate.
The title changes didn’t help either. Initially titled Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the film was shortened to Invasion after Kajganich’s conceptual changes. Then, to avoid confusion with ABC’s TV series Invasion, it was retitled The Visiting. After the show was cancelled, the movie reverted to The Invasion in October 2006. As if that wasn’t enough, film prints sent to theaters carried the fake title Human Beast. From the beginning, the project seemed unsure of its identity, and the unfocused results show it. Add to that the fact that this was Hirschbiegel’s first English-language film, and it’s easy to see how Finney’s story got lost in translation.
Production designer Jack Fisk was hired to bring Baltimore and D.C. to life, while Hirschbiegel recruited cinematographer Rainer Klausmann, his longtime collaborator on Trickster, Das Urteil, The Experiment, and the Oscar-nominated Downfall.
In a 2017 interview, Klausmann revealed that the initial budget for The Invasion was $64 million (over $100 million when adjusted for today) and that figure didn’t include the millions required for the massive reshoots. High-end estimates place the true budget above $80 million (closer to $125 million in 2025 dollars). For an unknown director making his English-language debut, it was a risky gamble. Warner Bros. bet heavily on the recognizable Body Snatchers brand and Nicole Kidman’s star power. Spoiler: that was a spectacular miscalculation.
Principal Photography & Reshoots
With roughly $64–$80 million behind it, principal photography began on September 26, 2005, and wrapped November 16. The 45-day shoot primarily took place in Maryland and Washington, D.C., with additional days in Los Angeles. Most of the Maryland filming took place in Baltimore, with extra scenes shot in Towson and Ruxton.
In D.C., the subway scene where Carol witnesses bodies plummeting from a rooftop was shot at Union Station and Columbus Circle. Other D.C. locations included the Cleveland Park Metro Station, Dupont Circle, Embassy Row, and the area outside the Foggy Bottom–George Washington University station.
During the Chilean Embassy sequence, filmed during a heavy rain effect, Kidman forgot to put her SUV in park. The vehicle began rolling backward down an incline until Daniel Craig, in full 007 hero mode, leapt over and slammed the parking brake. No one was hurt, but Kidman’s luck wouldn’t hold during the reshoots, when a different stunt sent her to the hospital.
Meanwhile, Daniel Craig received a small career notification: a call from longtime James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, informing him he’d officially been cast as the new 007 for Casino Royale. He briefly left production to attend the film’s announcement event in London on October 14, 2005.
The Massive Reshoots
Once principal photography wrapped, Warner Bros. held a test screening… and they hated Hirschbiegel’s version. Quietly, they hired Lana and Lilly Wachowski to rewrite approximately 30% of the screenplay and oversee reshoots. In reality, they ended up rewriting closer to two-thirds of the film. They then brought in their V for Vendetta protégé, James McTeigue, to direct the reshoots.
The reshoots took place in Los Angeles from January 9–27, 2007, thirteen months after the main shoot ended. The 17-day reshoots added at least $10 million to the budget. Both McTeigue and the Wachowskis chose to remain uncredited. To this day, the Wachowskis have barely acknowledged their involvement.
The goal? Reduce heavy dialogue, crank up the action, and deliver a clearer, more memorable ending.
Kidman’s On-Set Injury
During one of the new action scenes, an added car chase where Carol evades infected pursuers in a Jaguar XJ6, the towing rig turned too tightly on wet pavement and crashed into a traffic light on West 6th Street in downtown L.A. Seven stunt performers and crew members on the camera truck were seriously injured. Kidman broke multiple ribs and was hospitalized. Still, she returned the next day to finish the reshoots. A $17 million payday is one hell of a painkiller.
The Changed Ending
The reshoots also altered the film’s confusing original ending. Initially, Carol’s son Oliver, believed to be immune, is attacked by an alien as they run toward a helicopter, leaving his fate ambiguous. The new ending shows Carol discovering a convenient cure using a special virus, neatly implying Oliver is safe and providing a more optimistic conclusion.
Hirschbiegel later admitted to Entertainment Weekly that the changes frustrated him, but he still praised the Wachowskis’ ideas: “Some of their suggestions pissed me off because the pages were just better than what I had shot.”
Five months after reshoots wrapped, composer John Ottman recorded the film’s score with a 77-piece orchestra, adding yet more cost to an already swollen budget.
Release, Reception & Legacy
The Invasion hit theaters on August 17, 2007, only eight months after reshoots were completed. Originally slated for release in August 2006, the project was delayed a full year due to the extensive reworking.
The movie opened at #5 at the U.S. box office, ultimately grossing just $25.1 million worldwide. With a $65–$80 million budget, the film was a financial catastrophe. Critics weren’t kinder. Most reviewers noted The Invasion’s inferiority to the earlier adaptations and its awkward mix of half-baked ideas, studio interference, and mismatched tones.
Not even James McTeigue’s reshoots or the Wachowskis’ script overhaul could save the film from collapsing into a dull rehash of better versions of Finney’s story. In a darkly fitting twist, a story about aliens draining humans of their individuality ended up becoming a movie that lobotomizes its audience, making everyone who sits through it slightly dimmer for the experience.
In 2025, the film sits at a dismal 20% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 45 Metascore, numbers that perfectly mirror its legacy.
Since then, Hollywood hasn’t attempted another Body Snatchers adaptation. For a story as timeless and thematically rich as Finney’s novel, the franchise deserved better. The Invasion failed to execute Oliver Hirschbiegel’s unconventional vision, and the film’s underperformance seemingly scared studios away from revisiting the material.
Hirschbiegel has directed only four films since, three narrative features and a documentary, and has focused largely on television, most recently directing episodes of Apple TV+’s Constellation.
In the end, the most memorable thing about The Invasion is the behind-the-scenes chaos surrounding its troubled production, a fitting yet unfortunate legacy for a movie that never stood a chance. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what happened to The Invasion 20 years ago.
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