Fox And James Cameron Tap Shawn Levy For 3D 'Fantastic Voyage'

20th Century Fox has set Shawn Levy to direct Fantastic Voyage, the James Cameron-produced 3D tent pole film. I’m told that Levy has boarded the re-imagining of the 1966 original about a team of scientists shrunk into a ship in an attempt to save a colleague’s life. Fox and Cameron have been moving cautiously on a big budget film that, from early in the script once they go inside the body, is almost exclusively CGI. The script is by Shane Salerno, with Laeta Kalogridis working on a polish.

The directing job has been one of the big open slots out there since Paul Greengrass ended a flirtation with the picture last year. I’m told that helmers like Darren Aronofsky, Timur Bekmambetov, Jonathan Mostow and Louis Leterrier met with Cameron. Levy is an unexpected choice, but he is a Fox favorite who is broadening beyond comedies into bigger fare.

He has a strong commercial instinct, and made Fox a fortune with the Night at the Museum franchise and before that Cheaper By the Dozen and What Happens in Vegas, which led the film to re-up his 21 Laps banner last year for another 3 years. He last directed the Tina Fey-Steve Carell comedy Date Night for Fox. Levy most recently directed the hi-tech action film Real Steel for DreamWorks with Hugh Jackman and recently signing on for another action adventure picture with the star for Fox. He also set up a feature version of the Spike TV series Deadliest Warrior at Fox through his 21 Laps banner as a possible directing vehicle on a film now being scripted by John D. Payne and Patrick McKay. Levy is repped by WME.

I think the only way that they can do disservice to the old version is to not shrink and not go into a human body.

If they were to base the screenplay on Isaac Asimov's novelization, I'd be more interested.
Hope they make clear there is a valid REASON for the woman to come along, aside from sex
appeal.

Does he explain how they can breathe?

If they were to base the screenplay on Isaac Asimov's novelization, I'd be more interested.
Hope they make clear there is a valid REASON for the woman to come along, aside from sex
appeal.

I guess I'll have to start doing some Google image searches for Raquel Welch pictures to bring back the memories since this thread has descended into science and stuff....

Does he explain how they can breathe?

If you look at the original movie, Rachel Welch's character does NOTHING. In the book, she is supposedly a laser expert, but it's the
DOCTOR who repairs the laser after it gets sabotaged. I have no problem with casting a beautiful woman as a scientist, but beef up the
writing so that you can BELIEVE she's a scientist. There are three female characters in the movie Hollow Man, and I can easily believe
that they are scientists.

As for how they can breathe, the answer is obvious---the air in the Proteus is miniaturized along with the ship. In fact, in the book they have
to miniaturize the air coming in through Benes' lungs before they can use it.

When Einstein was alive and watching Sci-Fi movies, he had what he called the Science to Cup Size Quotient (Or the popular name: E= m C-Cup²).

Any degree of questionable science in a feature film is offset by an additional cup size on the leading lady.

So a movie with a starlet with a JJ cup need not have any internal logic whatever, correct?

Whoops. Eddy beat me to it.

Who would'a thunk that Marvel would eventually turn the FANTASTIC FOUR into a riff on ASTRO CITY'S FIRST FAMILY which was itself a riff on the FANTASTIC FOUR.