Fincher dives for 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Remake alert! Well, sort of. Fans of the 1954 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea may want to look elsewhere.

Why? See, Disney’s new adaptation of the Jules Verne 1869 novel of the same name could be back on, with reports that David Fincher has thrown the project a lifeline.

The studio previously had a new $150m budget version of the flick greenlit with McG at the helm, but when Richard Ross took over as Disney Chairman he nixed the project.

Apparently he wasn’t thrilled about the direction that McG was taking it in (no doubt he would’ve been trying to cash in on the success of Pirates Of The Caribbean ), but now Ross seems happy to be giving the flick the kiss of life.

Fincher reportedly approached Sean Bailey, who is producing the adaptation, with a view to making this new 20,000 Leagues his first major studio pic in almost two decades.

The director is currently negotiating to direct, while The Informant! screenwriter Scott J Burns is being tipped to scribe a new take on Verne’s classic Captain Nemo story.

Think Fincher could do the material justice?

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.