I’d love to use the words “incredibly shrinking” to describe Brent Ratner’s career. Unfortunately it can only be used to describe the next picture the director may be linking up to direct. According to The Hollywood Reporter Ratner is in talks to take on The Incredible Shrinking Man, a movie that may deserve the director as much as he deserves it.

The Incredible Shrinking Man has been a project in development for a number of years, with quite a few directors attached at some point or another. The constant throughout has been the star: Eddie Murphy. Brent Ratner directing an Eddie Murphy comedy. Can we just go ahead and throw this in the direct-to-DVD pile right now?

AICN is carrying an interesting bit of hope for the project, despite Ratner and Murphy. Apparently the latest draft of the movie comes from Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, best known for their work on Reno 911. What’s interesting is that even though the site is excited over the writers’ involvement, they admit none of Lennon and Garant’s other scripts have really come alive on screen (Reno 911, Balls of Fury).

All in all, this just sounds like a disaster to me, which is exactly the kind of movie I’d like to see Ratner involved with. After all, if he’s directing this, then there are a bunch of promising pictures out there he’s not messing with.