Bryan Singer Moving Forward with '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'

Onward to the sea! Deadline is reporting that director Bryan Singer is the latest to push forward on the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie. 20th Century Fox is working on this remake, and they've been developing it for a long time. For years, David Fincher was working on a remake, and McG was attached early on with Will Smith as Captain Nemo. The report says that Singer, having finished worked on X-Men: Apocalypse, is "moving toward a fall production start [on 20,000 Leagues], and Singer will begin casting, full speed ahead." No more delays or problems? Will this actually go into production? It seems the answer is yes, Singer is even credited on the story for the new movie being co-written by Rick Sordelet & Dan Studney.

Here's the quote directly from Bryan Singer published over on Deadline, talking about his excitement:

"I'm incredibly excited to be working with my friends at Fox, with whom I’ve had such a long and fruitful relationship," he said. "Ever since I was a boy and first discovered the 1870 Jules Verne novel, I have dreamt of retelling this classic story. Without revealing too much, it contains not only the original characters of Captain Nemo, Ned Land and Professor Aronnax, but also some new and original characters and Sci Fi plot twists culminating in a timeless adventure for all ages."

The original, famous 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was a 1954 Technicolor adventure produced by The Walt Disney Company. The version Fincher has been working on for years was based at Disney, though this version Bryan Singer is working on now is based at 20th Century Fox. Singer is also producing with Jason Taylor, who run the director's Bad Hat Harry Productions. This news means that any other versions of a remake will likely be put on hold, unless they really want to go head-to-head with competing stories. It also might be an early response to James Cameron's Avatar 2, which is said to take place mostly underwater on Pandora. Whatever the case, we'll definitely keep an eye on things as they begin pre-production work.