Roland Emmerich is gearing up to direct his long-planned Fantastic Voyage remake, and even though its screen debut is still in the distance, he recently discussed the project with Empire.
Judging from the comments left in response to our previous Voyage news items, the words “Roland Emmerich Fantastic Voyage remake” don’t fill most of you with excitement, but the director isn’t worried — he knows exactly what he wants out of the picture, which is understandable; this is his second go-round with the project, and he’s had plenty of time to figure out an angle. As he tells Empire, he came back to the remake after James Cameron gave it up:
“Two years ago, Jim called me up and said ‘Roland, I want you to look at the script for Fantastic Voyage — it’s not there yet.’ And he sent it over and I hated the script.”
Apparently, Cameron’s version was set in the future, and involved not one, but two teams of miniaturized scientists wandering around a colleague’s innards:
“There were two submarines in the body. It was like a Navy SEALS film. And then the president of production at Fox — me and my partner and him all go surfing together — says ‘Well, will you do it with a page one rewrite, and we won’t start until you’re happy with the script?’ So then I said yes. The key is I won’t do it unless it’s going to be a good movie.”
The remake’s script is currently being re-written by Marianne and Cormac Wibberley, the duo responsible for National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Do with that information what you will.
Source: Empire
