Disney remaking 20k Leagues Under the Sea?????!?!?

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » January 7th, 2009, 2:01 pm

God help us if this is real!!!!

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39677

McG is directing a remake of Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

I hope this is just a sad attempt at humor. An early April Fool's Joke, or the usual passed-as gospel-truth Internet Rumor

Bad enough Disney decided to redo one of its few certifiable epics...

Sad, if it's true, that they chose this hack to direct it!

I just can't take a guy seriously who goes by such a pretentious name.

I don't that I think everything of his that I've seen was pure, unadulterated AARRF!

Post by **Sunday** » January 7th, 2009, 2:42 pm

Eh, there have been a bunch of adaptations and spin-offs already and there will be more.

Post by **Daniel** » January 7th, 2009, 3:00 pm

Awwe, what a cute gif!

More seriously, meh. Instead of continuing the Narnia franchise, Disney wants to do yet another retread. And like those before it, it will probably be bad. Shame.

Post by **Randall** » January 7th, 2009, 8:49 pm

Boy, I'm sure not interested in this remake! Love the original, though.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » January 7th, 2009, 9:41 pm

I LOVE the original 20k... And I've said before I'm not a fan of Disney live-action in general, but 20k WAS an epic film.

The only "remake" I've enjoyed of this film was the Saturday Night Live episode with the spoof sketch. It was great seeing Hartman as Ned Land, Mike Meyers as the Professor, Rob Schneider as the perfect assistant (with an uncanny Peter Lorre impersonation), and Kelsey Grammer as Captain Nemo/James Mason. It was lovingly done with excellent set recreation and footage edited in from the movie of the Nautilus.

Whatever McG or whoever follows after he (probably) gets replaced does just will not do justice to the 1950s film...

Post by **Ben** » January 9th, 2009, 2:59 pm

Ugh!

Agreed on the original (have it on VHS, LaserDisc - the Archive, natch - and DVD) and have loved it since I saw it on TV in the early 1980s. For some reason the BBC got a very rare chance to show it and it was put on as a real adult feature, starting at 8pm on a Wednesday night, as I remember it. There was a real feeling of this being an event, and appropriately enough it was the first of Walt's dramatic pictures that I saw. I was gripped (probably more than I have been in subsequent viewings) but am always astounded by the scale of the picture. The 2-disc DVD really presented a vibrant image, mastered to HD for a future release - sadly probably when this sure to be misfire hits screens.

Then again, the Witch Mountain movie looks pretty decent, and "McG" isn't bad enough to really screw things up. Ultimately, this'll be a big studio picture where they keep a close watch, so he'll be under tight reigns. The guy doesn't have a style of his own, so it'll realistically be no worse than any other director for hire would do on it. I'm willing to give it some space until they start announcing the casting for it.

What's the bet, though, that this is <I>another</I> movie McG jumps off before it starts shooting!?

Post by **Josh** » January 26th, 2009, 10:06 pm

IESB.net examines the screenplay for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo, revealing several story details. Unfortunately, the review isn't very positive:

IESB.net wrote:It's like a live action Aladdin but with way too many voice-overs and montages. I swear there must be like 10 montages in this thing! Plus all the character voice over tells me one thing, the story is not being told properly if you need someone to tell you what's going on.

Hopefully the story has changed dramatically before it fell into the lap of McG, I can't see him seeing anything potentially worthwhile out of this one.

Post by **droosan** » January 26th, 2009, 11:22 pm

Disclaimer: This has absolutely nothing to do with Disney's new adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Rather, this is a Nautilus which I designed & built for a low-budget live-action DTV feature titled 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which was released last year. The movie was a very loose re-telling of the classic story, but was set in 'modern/near-future' time.

In creating this model, I made a conscious effort to pay 'homage' to both the classic Disney Nautilus, as well as the Nautilus from the anime series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.

I was pretty happy with how it had turned out, considering it was constructed in a mere six weeks (such is the rigorous schedule for low-budget DTVs).

Post by **Sunday** » January 26th, 2009, 11:49 pm

Wow, that is one really cool piece of engineering! Stylish, too

Would you happen to have a couple in 1920x1200, sans text? This is definitely an item I'd like to be looking at as a background.

edit: or higher res in general. That is some fine work and I'd love to see some of the details.

Post by **Ben** » January 27th, 2009, 11:20 am

Nice work, man, but Droo - you just blew your cover.

Post by **Randall** » January 27th, 2009, 9:47 pm

Those are some sweet designs, man! Good work.

Post by **Ben** » January 28th, 2009, 9:26 am

These actually remind me of the spaceships that featured in a theatrical teaser trailer for a British sci-fi film, Legionnaires, that I co-wrote the music for.

It was a kicking trailer, like the opening of Mars Attacks but with little pod like ships gathering together to create an interstellar army, and our music was big and bombastic, over the top in a knowing but not over-silly way.

Unfortunately the film, which was slated as being one of the first to shoot at the revamped Elstree Studios in 1995/96, turned out to be a producers' scam...they raised the money on the back of two minutes of this teaser and then frittered it away on other projects for a year or so (all the while suggesting they were working on cutting-edge VFX), before scarpering out of sight.

Apart from us not receiving our royalties for the score, a lot of other people and companies were left deeply out of pocket. Not sure how it all would have worked out, but the project seemed a pretty good idea and they had some notable names attached in front and behind the camera. I'm still in touch with the lead animator on the trailer, but he signed a gagging order in return for his final payment and can't talk about what happened, after it all turned pretty ugly.

But...anyhoo...squish the back end of Droo's designs up a bit into pod like shapes, and that's what they reminded me of. Very nice designs! I'm also reminded of the Nostromo, which Ellenshaw obviously also based on the Nautilus.