If James Cameron's career has been known for anything, it's pushing the limits of technology to deliver unparalleled cinematic experiences. So it makes sense that Cameron and his company Lightstorm Entertainment have been interested in remaking Fantastic Voyage, the spectacle-filled '60s sci-fi classic about a team of scientists that shrink down to a molecular level and go inside a human body. If you want to use bleeding-edge tech to transport audiences to another world, that world may as well be inside the human body.
Cameron and 20th Century Fox have been pursuing a remake for over a decade now, with Cameron originally set to direct it back in the late '90s. That obviously never happened and since then Cameron's focus on Avatar and its sequels has kept him out of the director's chair. But now he's found someone to fill it: Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, del Toro will be working with his Blade 2 screenwriter David Goyer to come up with a new Fantastic Voyage script. And the original will indeed need plenty of updating. Not only has medical science and our understanding of the human body changed significantly in the last 50 years, but so has the geopolitical landscape. The original was a Cold War stalemate story about the United States and the Soviet Union racing each other to perfect shrinking technology.
Don't expect this new Fantastic Voyage to light up movie screens anytime soon, however. Guillermo del Toro's attachment is an enticing development, but this definitely isn't the first time a Fantastic Voyage remake has inched forward. Here's a brief history.
1997: James Cameron gains interest in directing the movie after Titanic. Ultimately he decides creating the original world of Pandora is more exciting.
2007: Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) is attached as a director. Cameron's old script is thrown out and a new one is ordered. The WGA strike gets in the way, though, and Emmerich moves on to make 2012 instead.
2010: Shane Salerno (Armageddon) writes a new script that attracts Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum). This time it was the casting that was slow to come together (reportedly he wanted Will Smith and the studio didn't want someone that expensive) and Levy eventually moved on.
Things may be different this time, though. Pacific Rim 2 has essentially been canceled, so del Toro's dance card is currently wide open. Assuming it stays that way, Fantastic Voyage may finally have a clear runway for take off.
