Remake OTD: Fantastic Voyage

VARIETY: Emmerich to captain 'Voyage'
Sci-fi guy embarks on redo
By MICHAEL FLEMING - Posted: Wed., Aug. 15, 2007, 7:25pm PT

Helmer Roland Emmerich is boarding a remake of the 1966 sci-fi pic "Fantastic Voyage" for 20th Century Fox.

"National Treasure" scribes Marianne and Cormac Wibberley are in talks to write the script.

"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 original, directed by Richard Fleischer, starred Raquel Welch and Donald Pleasence.

Emmerich's Centropolis Entertainment partner Michael Wimer will produce with James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment.

It is Emmerich's second tour of duty on the project, after being attached a decade ago. The Wibberleys recently took a stab at a draft of "Voyage" that sparked the director's renewed interest in doing the remake.

"Fantastic Voyage" is the director's third large-scale film for Fox, after "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow."

Emmerich recently completed "10,000 B.C.," which will be released March 7 by Warner Bros. and Legendary.

The Wibberleys are among the dozen scribes in Writing Partners, the scribe collective which just sealed an unusual first-look deal with Fox for spec scripts. (Daily Variety, Aug. 15). That deal is reserved for original creations by those writers, so the "Fantastic Voyage" assignment doesn't apply.

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Hmm... I'm not enamored enough with the original to get upset about this. In fact, I think it's a pretty good candidate for a remake - the only thing that I'd really like to stay the same is the design of the submarine. I wonder if they'll stylize the human body like last time, or get all squishy and use endoscopic photography? Who will they stuff into the low-cut wetsuit in this version (no votes for Jessica Alba, please)?