A remake of the 1966 science fiction adventure film Fantastic Voyage has been making its way through development hell for decades now, and for most of that time it has had James Cameron attached as a producer. At one time, Cameron was working with Roland Emmerich to develop the project, and at another time he had chosen Shawn Levy to direct the film. Along the way, David S. Goyer was hired to write the screenplay – and for one stretch of time, Goyer and Cameron were working with director Guillermo del Toro to get the new Fantastic Voyage into production. The project has never gotten that far… but there’s still hope. During a new interview with Deadline, Cameron revealed that he’s “working with a director on a new script” and “thinks it could move forward in a big way this coming year.” Click the Deadline link to watch the interview.
Fantastic Voyage Refresher
Directed by Richard Fleischer from a script that was crafted by Harry Kleiner, Jerome Bixby, Otto Klement, and David Duncan, the original Fantastic Voyage had the following synopsis: The brilliant scientist Jan Benes develops a way to shrink humans, and other objects, for brief periods of time. Benes, who is working in communist Russia, is transported by the CIA to America, but is attacked en route. In order to save the scientist, who has developed a blood clot in his brain, a team of Americans in a nuclear submarine is shrunk and injected into Benes’ body. They have a finite period of time to fix the clot and get out before the miniaturization wears off. The film starred Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O’Brien, Donald Pleasence, Arthur O’Connell, William Redfield, Arthur Kennedy, and Jean Del Val.
Goyer Wants Back In
Earlier this year, David S. Goyer shared that he was still hoping that he and Cameron could get back together with Guillermo del Toro to get their version of Fantastic Voyage made. Goyer told Screen Rant, “We were in prep on Fantastic Voyage and it was very close. A production designer was on and all of the above. … Fantastic Voyage got derailed with the-then regime at Fox, but God, it was a good one. It was such a great experience working with Guillermo and James Cameron on that, and then my experience working on that led to my working on Terminator: Dark Fate with Cameron and we got along great. I’ve known Guillermo forever. I hope one day we can figure out [how to get Fantastic Voyage made]. In fact, now, my friend Steve Asbell is running [20th Century Studios], so it occurs to me that I should call him up and say, ‘Hey, maybe we should try to resurrect this.’“
Are you glad to hear that James Cameron hasn’t given up on the Fantastic Voyage remake? Who’s a director that you would like to see at the helm of the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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