Outside of his gothic passion project, Crimson Peak director Guillermo del Toro struggled to garner much luck in 2015. Not only was Pacific Rim 2 shelved indefinitely, but the filmmaker’s collaboration with decorated video game developer Hideo Kojima for the now-canned Silent Hills reboot quickly unravelled after Kojima’s much-touted fallout with Konami.
As such, the passionate Mexican director is actively casting the net in search of a new project, and it appears del Toro has settled on his next venture: a remake of classic 60s sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage. That’s according to The Hollywood Reporter, noting that the celebrated filmmaker has opened talks to helm the modern retelling that’s in the works over at Twentieth Century Fox and Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment.
Negotiations are still in the early stages, though del Toro’s potential involvement would reunite the director with his Blade 2 screenwriter David Goyer, who has remained attached to the Fantastic Voyage remake for years at this point. During its prolonged stint in development limbo, Fox’s overhaul has courted both Will Smith, Shawn Levy and even Wolverine star Hugh Jackman at one point, though the fact that the studio is eyeing del Toro to take the reins signals that it’s now time for a new lease of life.
And not a moment too soon, lest Fantastic Voyage fall off the radar. First released in 1966, the camp sci-fi gem follows a group of scientists “shrunk to atomic size and sent in a miniature submarine inside the body of a scientist to save his life.” Fox is throwing its full support behind this modern interpretation, aligning the remake as a blockbuster tentpole film – one that’s without a release date for now.
Will Guillermo del Toro lend the Fantastic Voyage remake the lease of life it so craves? We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.