James Cameron Plans to Direct Science Fiction Classic Remake After Avatar

Cursed project

Cinema enthusiasts and fans of James Cameron know that the director is a fan of a sci-fi film released in the 60s, Fantastic Voyage.. Directed by Richard Fleischer in 1966, we discover the adventures of a team of five scientists who encounter a major challenge. She finds herself miniaturized and injected into the body of a scientist in order to operate on it… from the inside! A little Magic Bus side, but without Madame Bille-en-Tête. As you can imagine, the trip is not going to go as planned and many adventures await our small group.

Adapted into a novel by Isaac Asimov, the film quickly became cult. Since then, the feature film concept has been the subject of several variations. In addition to a 17-episode animated series, the best-known adaptation obviously remains the 1987 remake called The Adventure Within, directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins). In the 1990s, James Cameron became passionate about the 1966 film and had only one idea in mind: to make a more modern version! He's working on a script, but soon Avatar is taking up all his time. The remake of Fantastic Voyage was then entrusted by Fox to Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow). But he puts the project aside, saying to himself “not a fan of Cameron's script”.

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Hope gives life

Between 2007 and 2008, Cormac and Marianne Wibberley attempted to rework the script, but the Hollywood screenwriters' strike put another pause on the project. Different directors succeed one another at the head of production without anything coming to fruition. The latest news is that the project is in the hands of Guillermo del Toro, who is already busy on other productions. So, should we abandon the idea of ​​one day seeing the remake of Fantastic Voyage on the big screen? Not so sure…

Our colleagues atWidescreen inform us that during the inauguration of the exhibition The Art of James Cameron at the French cinematheque, the director spoke about the post-Avatar… and the return of Fantastic Voyage! “Jon Landau and I have been working on it for several years and we plan to bring it to the stage very soon. (…) We think (…) we can make a very good film“. Hoping that this time it will be the right one!