The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that fan-fav director Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Crimson Peak) is in talks with 20th Century Fox and James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment to helm the long-gestating Fantastic Voyage remake. The project would reunite del Toro with his longtime friend Cameron, with whom he attempted to mount At the Mountains of Madness a few years ago, and screenwriter David Goyer (Batman Begins, Man of Steel) who penned Blade II. Cameron, Jon Landau, and Rae Sanchini are producing with Goyer in line to executive produce.
Set to make use of the same 3D technology Cameron used for Avatar, Fantastic Voyage is about a scientist who is dying of a blood clot. His only chance for survival is for five scientist colleagues to be miniaturized in a ship, and injected into his bloodstream. The film is a remake of the 1966 original, directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Raquel Welch and Donald Pleasence.
Before fans get too excited, it should be known that a Fantastic Voyage remake has been in the depths of development hell for many years with a revolving door of potential directors (Roland Emmerich, Paul Greengrass, Shawn Levy), stars (Will Smith, Hugh Jackman) and screenwriters (Shane Salerno, Laeta Kalogridis, Marianne & Cormac Wibberley). Add on top of that del Toro’s penchant for flirting with and then spurning big studio gigs–Warners’ Justice League Dark being the most recent example–and you have a high probability of this voyage never setting sail. Although the article states that del Toro’s Pacific Rim 2 is now on the indefinite backburner at Universal, Legendary’s potential sale to Chinese conglomerate Wanda could mean a revival for the shelved mechs-v-monsters sequel since the first Pac Rim did stellar business in China.
That said, del Toro would be an excellent choice for the project given the former make-up man’s extensive knowledge of human anatomy, as well as an affinity for sci-fi hardware that will come in handy when re-imagining the iconic miniaturized submarine the Proteus.
Although not an official Fantastic Voyage remake, Joe Dante’s similarly-themed 1987 film Innerspace took a page or twelve from the original Fantastic Voyage in depicting a similar miniature trip through the human body.
