Ever since the historical success of 2009’s Avatar, James Cameron has primarily placed his energy into forwarding the franchise. Following a sequel finally coming to fruition with 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, the iconic filmmaker isn’t stopping there, considering a third Avatar movie is expected to come out next year, and two more are dated for release down the line. But, somehow Cameron revealed that he has been working on another movie that takes place outside of Pandora in recent years.
When Cameron attended an event in Paris this week as “The Art of James Cameron” is now on exhibition at the Cinematheque Française, the filmmaker revealed he has been working on a remake to 1966’s Fantastic Voyage. In his words:
We’ve been developing it for a number of years, and we plan to go ahead with it very soon. Raquel Welch is not available, but we think we can make a pretty good movie.
Fantastic Voyage is a science fiction adventure film about a crew that are shrunk to a microscopic size and take their submarine inside the body of an injured scientist to fix up injuries he has in his brain. The movie famously made Raquel Welsh a star when she was part of the submarine crew in the film. As Cameron referred to in his comments (via Variety), Raquel Welsh, who died at the age of 82 last year, can’t be in the remake, but he’s still confident he and his collaborators can pull off something exciting.
The original Fantastic Voyage is a beloved science fiction film from the ‘60s that won two Oscars for Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. Considering James Cameron being a pioneer in filmmaking techniques like mo-cap and underwater filmmaking, it seems like the perfect project for his skills. It’s not the first time Cameron has shared interest in remaking Fantastic Voyage, as his vocal interest dates back to 1997.
Back in 2007, Independence Day’s Roland Emmerich was attached to remake it before the WGA strikes of 2007-2008 delayed filming, and the project was ultimately cancelled. Guillermo del Toro was also going to helm a Fantastic Voyage movie as well, but it was delayed and later cancelled as well.
Amidst Cameron talking about taking on a movie outside of Avatar, the director also shared that the third movie is still on track for its intended release date on December 19, 2025. He also said the scripts for Avatar 4 and 5 have been locked in and he is prepping 3D modeling on them. In an update from Walt Disney Studios on Friday, where Toy Story 5 and The Mandalorian & Grogu were also given official dates, the Avatar sequels were given dates rather far into the future. Per the release schedule, Avatar 4 will come out on December 21, 2029, and Avatar 5 will hit theaters two years later on December 19, 2031.
With that in mind, perhaps James Cameron will have some time to take a break from Pandora for Fantastic Voyage? You can stay updated on upcoming Disney movies here on CinemaBlend.