Paul Greengrass exits James Cameron's Fantastic Voyage remake

By Sean O'Neal | May 20, 2010 | 4:44pm

Aux Features Film

The James Cameron-produced 3-D reboot of Fantastic Voyage has lost Paul Greengrass, who was rumored to be directing but had never officially signed on. Deadline got the exclusive report, saying that Greengrass is instead moving on to directing Treasure Island, a “stylized adaptation” of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel from Sherlock Holmes producer Lionel Wigram (who obviously knows a thing or two about stylized adaptations). Cameron and producer pal Jon Landau are said to be looking for another big-name director to bring ~~the poetry of Coolio~~ the update of the 1966 sci-fi classic to life.

This news probably comes as no shock to anyone who’s familiar with Greengrass’ style, which is as loose and on-the-fly as his kinetic, handheld camerawork suggests—and pairing him with the rigidly OCD Cameron, who can spend over a decade planning the tiniest of details, never really seemed like a good match. (Besides, as Deadline points out, 3-D is disorienting enough without Greengrass giving it his trademark tremors.) Still, watching those two notoriously contentious dudes bicker would have been fun. Oh well.