Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! It appears that we could be on for round 7,345 in Duelling Development Projects as the Heat Vision Blog reports that 20th Century Fox is gearing up its own take on 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.
We brought word at the weekend that David Fincher has been talking to Disney about applying the electrodes to the stalled Mouse House project, which was shoved into limbo after executives turned down Terminator Salvation director McG’s darker vision for Captain Nemo and battle-ready sub the Nautilus.
But one of the appeals of Jules Verne’s tale is that it’s in the public domain, so anyone and their octopus can have a crack at turning it into a movie. Fox is apparently doing just that, with Ridley and Tony Scott’s production company already working with a script from Clash Of The Titans co-writer Travis Beacham.
Plus the Fox film also has a director in its sights, with Scott Free talking to in-demand Russian action maestro Timur Bekmambetov about adding it to the 5,000 other offers he's juggling right now. While nothing has been locked in, Bekmambetov is said to be very interested in the Fox version, which apparently is set in the future, while still following the basic plot structure of Verne’s 1870 novel.
If the director signs on, the Fox pic will be ahead of Disney on two counts, since Fincher isn’t locked into his version yet and writer Scott Z Burns hasn’t finalised his deal to write the thing. And can you seriously see Disney types trying to hurry David Fincher along? Let’s see how far they get with that…