It appears Jules Verne's classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea may be resurfacing on the big screen after all - and with an unlikely pair at the helm.
Disney had been planning to breathe new life into Captain Nemo and his crew last year, with McG (Charlie's Angels, Terminator Salvation) on board to direct the mooted $150 million project. That is until newly installed studio boss Rich Ross pulled the plug before he could get his feet wet.
The Hollywood Reporter says 20,000 Leagues is back on Disney's 'To Do' list, and is now negotiating with David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) to direct and Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum) to write the screenplay.
As THR points out, signing Fincher, for one, is an interesting move if it is indeed correct that McG's 20,000 Leagues was to have a very dark tone and was ultimately the reason for it being sunk. Few do 'dark tone' better than Fincher. The oft heart-warming Benjamin Button aside, Fincher's career is full of darkness, albeit in an extremely entertaining fashion - Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room and Zodiac.
But, apparently it was Fincher himself who restarted the engines on 20,000 Leagues, approaching Disney recently with a view to venturing into more uncharted waters - an action-adventure blockbuster, or summer tent-pole.
THR says the Fincher/Burns take on Verne's much-adapted 1869 story centering around Nemo's state-of-the-art submarine the Nautilus, is described as being "in the vein of Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back", and "will aim to be visually dazzling".
It sounds more like something from James Cameron. In fact, it surprises me that the sci-fi master has not been linked to a 20,000 Leagues remake himself due to his love of water and filming it - think The Abyss, Titanic and the documentary Ghosts of the Abyss - but he is, of course, planning to go deep-sea diving in a big way in the Avatar sequel.
Fincher, it seems, is keen to follow Cameron's lead by starting off somewhat gritty, not to mention cutting his directing teeth on a part of the Alien franchise - Alien 3 and Aliens respectively - and moving into the world of effects-driven cinematic extravaganzas.
After dabbling in a new scanning technology called Lightstage to create an 'old, young' Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button, Fincher was planning to take it a step further with another remake, Heavy Metal, until that project froze.
It will be interesting to see what Fincher can do with Nemo and company in 20,000 Leagues. Don't expect anything like the last big screen Disney adaptation from 1954. It was what you might call a semi-musical, with a singing and dancing Kirk Douglas.
While Captain Nemo and the Nautilus last appeared in the under-whelming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 20,000 Leagues was last adapted in 1997 when Hallmark and Village Roadshow made different television versions.
Â
