20,000 Leagues Over, McG

Disney cancels Captain Nemo

20,000 Leagues Over, McG

by Owen Williams |
Published on

Disney's watery, literary epic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo has been put in dry dock, leaving director McG looking for a new project.

The family-friendly adaptation of the Jules Verne classic, not filmed since 1954 (unless you count The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which you probably shouldn't) had been fast-tracked into production and was due to go before cameras in February.

This is one of the first casualties of the Dick Cook regime (other than Dick Cook himself), although Disney say that big releases like Tron Legacy and John Carter of Mars are still very much priorities. The official line is that Leagues is "on hold" and that it won't be sailing ahead "for now", so Bill Marsilli's script may yet see the light of day, at some indefinite point. No cast was ever set, although names like Will Smith were thrown around.

So what next for McG? He remains attached to Terminator 5, with the slight hitch that Terminator 5 is not currently attached to anything else while the rights are auctioned off. Which leaves Dead Spy Running, a Stephen Gaghan script being set up at Warners, and an unnamed NBC comedy with Larry Charles.

Pangs of regret or sighs of relief? If you're up for a spot of Disney seafaring, you'll no doubt be pleased to hear that Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is still on the books.

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