While James Cameron has been intensely busy with his “Avatar” sequels, the filmmaker has been developing many projects over the years concurrently over at 20th Century Studios. One of those is a sequel to “Alita: Battle Angel” that he’s been speaking with Disney and Robert Rodriguez about—logistics such as budget and platform, surely part of the conversation. At the same time, Cameron’s been working on another long-gestating project, a remake of the classic 1966 film “Fantastic Voyage,” which he had nearly directed himself. And while in Paris, Cameron shared a promising update on the project via Variety.
“We’ve been developing it for several years, and we plan to go ahead with it very soon,” Cameron said at Cinematheque Française in Paris, France, during a new exhibit of the filmmaker’s production artwork. “Raquel Welch is not available,” he quipped in reference to the original 1960s movie that she starred in, “But we think we can make a pretty good movie.”
If you’re unfamiliar with the Cold War-themed sci-fi adventure film, here is the logline via Apple:
In “Fantastic Voyage,” the brilliant scientist Jan Benes develops a way to shrink humans and other objects for brief periods. 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 most recent update on ‘Fantastic Voyage’ was years ago when Guillermo del Toro was hired to direct the film, with preparations underway in 2017. However, 20th Century and Lighstorm decided to put the project on hold to allow Del Toro to focus on the promotional tour for “The Shape of Water,” which took a lot of time, given the film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture that year. Given that del Toro is currently engrossed in his new “Frankenstein” movie, starring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac, and Mia Goth, it seems unlikely he’ll be available any time soon.
This likely means Cameron and the studio might already be in various discussions with other filmmakers about taking over the gig. One of the other filmmakers attached in the past was Canadian director Shawn Levy (“The Adam Project”), who recently worked with Disney on the upcoming Marvel film “Deadpool & Wolverine” and is also working on a mystery “Star Wars” movie, too. Paul Greengrass was another director once attached to the project, but he seems less likely a contender to come back to the film.
As for now, we’ll have to wait and see, but it sounds like Cameron is cooking up something, and perhaps news will surface in the next few months.