20,000 Leagues Before A Remake...

Fifty-six years ago today Walt Disney's take on Jules Verne...

"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" came out in 1954 and was a huge hit for Disney. It showed his daring in willing to gamble on projects that could be financially ruining for his beloved Walt Disney Production. If this had failed, his other big project may have had to be shelved or possibly sold off in bits and pieces. That project was scheduled to open up the following year. What was it? Disneyland.

Now there are plans at work to remake the adaptation of the classic Verne novel with David Fincher at the helm. It'll be interesting to see Fincher's take on the story and what different direction Scott Z. Burns' script will take the film in.

Developing...

20K 2.0...

At first, I was looking at the calendar thinking this was an awfully late April Fool's joke...

Holy crap! It appears the Mouse has been quietly working behind the scenes on a reboot of their reboot of the "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" project. Gone is McG as the director. Gone are the drafts by Bill Marsilli, Justin Marks and Randall Wallace. All their versions are to be swept away and given to someone totally unexpected.

According to The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog, David Fincher is in talks to helm the remake/re-imagined take on the tale of Captain Nemo. Scott Z. Burns, who's written "The Bourne Ultimatum," "Contagion," and "The Informant!" is working on the screenplay which will be in the vein of "Star Wars" or "The Empire Strikes Back." Consider me interested, I had no problem with the original screenwriters who worked on this, particularly Randall Wallace, but I have no faith in McG touching something like this. He's a poor man's Michael Bay, and coming from me, that ain't saying something complimentary. But I'm now going to be watching this project with much more enthusiasm.

Now, please don't let Will Smith's name become associated with this...