When last we were invited to come along and ride on James Cameron’s Fantastic Voyage, its future hinged perilously on the schedule of Will Smith, whose objection to fronting a movie where he’d not only not be the biggest star—he’d literally be microscopic—led to Shawn Levy becoming just the latest filmmaker to bail on the project in its seven years of development. And yet, like the search for a place where one can eat some steak with their beans and rice, Cameron continues to keep on searching and keep on looking for a remake of the sci-fi classic (even if directors are the same from Watts to Brooklyn). Now he’s commissioned a new script from David S. Goyer, the screenwriter who’s been injected into the bloodstream of every recent tentpole franchise from Man Of Steel to Sandman, and whose own exhausting schedule would seem to require a group of wee scientists zapping him with tiny lasers to keep his energy up.
Anyway, it remains to be seen what attaching the Goyer antibody to its cells will do to a movie body that’s already rejected Levy, Paul Greengrass, other potential stars like Hugh Jackman, and several prior infusions of writers. But Goyer’s involvement has reinvigorated a project that three years ago seemed to slide, slide, slippity-slide out of contention, OH YEAH, WITH SWITCHES ON THE BLOCK IN THE ’65. YOU BETTER BE READY WHEN THE FIVE ROLL BY. JUST ROLLLL ALONG. JUST ROLLLL and it seems Cameron remains committed to making it happen.
In related news, the rapper Coolio once had a hit song called “Fantastic Voyage.”