Captain Nemo (Live-Action)

[goofystitch]

I heard that Will Smith will be playing Captain Nemo. I thought that was an odd choice. I read somewhere that in the original book, Nemo was Indian (as in a person who comes from India). So if they wanted to stay true to the book, Will Smith wouldn't be the right choice. But I digress.

I am a HUGE fan of the original Disney film and while Disney has proven that they are very capable of making fantastic remakes (The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, and Mighty Joe Young (original was RKO)), they have also demonstrated that they can sometimes be incompetent with remakes (The Shaggy Dog).

To me, the only reason to remake 20,000 Leagues is because technology has improved so much that they could perhaps tell the story with more convincing effects. However, I don't feel that the story can really be improved upon and the fact that McG is involved makes me think this will be turned into a non-stop action film that will probably make a lot of money, but lose much of the meaning of the story. I think the end of the Disney version is very relevant today, with the dangers of nuclear warfare. So I would say that a remake has potential, but I don't really want a remake. I think the original was done so well that nobody needs to try to improve it.

[blackcauldron85]

I heard that Will Smith will be playing Captain Nemo.

So it's been confirmed? Link, please!

I haven't seen the whole original film yet- I watched some of it, went to bed, and then the DV-R broke. I'll buy it eventually. I really liked what I saw, though. Enough with the remakes, Disney!

[blackcauldron85]

http://blueskydisney.blogspot.com/2009/ ... ction.html

Nemo(2010/2011) - McG will direct this prequel to 20K that he hopes will star Will Smith(please no, please no) as the brooding younger Nemo before he found that island, built that fantastic sub and went on his vengeance streak. Please let fate step in and find someone else for the part. Since the Mouse wants to turn this into a trilogy I don't want to suffer through three adventures in miscasting.

So now the title is Nemo, and Disney wants it to be a trilogy?!?

[PeterPanfan]

First of all, that's a horrible name. Especially after Finding Nemo, nobody will be able to take it seriously.

Second of all, why must everything come out in trilogies now??

And I have no problem with Will Smith being in it.

[SpringHeelJack]

First of all, that's a horrible name. Especially after Finding Nemo, nobody will be able to take it seriously.

Yeah they will. It's not that big a deal, frankly. People get over names pretty quickly, not to mention "Finding Nemo" was years back.

Second of all, why must everything come out in trilogies now??

$$$

[kbehm29]

So now the title is Nemo, and Disney wants it to be a trilogy?!?

LOL - this is quite funny, if you've read the book. I just happened to have read it last week!

[Luke]

Why would anyone say "please no please no" regarding Will Smith, <u>especially</u> when the only other name that's been rumored (and thankfully dismissed) is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson?

And to orchestrating franchises before demand exists.

[Wonderlicious]

And to orchestrating franchises before demand exists.

And for making the most sense!

To be honest, this potential "trilogy" looks pretty crap. I suppose all you can do is just not go and see it.

[blackcauldron85]

Why would anyone say "please no please no" regarding Will Smith, <u>especially</u> when the only other name that's been rumored (and thankfully dismissed) is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson?

And to orchestrating franchises before demand exists.

a) The guy at that blog wrote "please no please no" about Will Smith- he's been complaining for a while about that casting choice, partly due to him not being the same ethnicity as the Nemo in the book. I just wanted to make it clear that he wrote it, not me!

b) I agree with not making franchises before demand exists, for the most part, anyway. Obviously if a movie is a stinker at the box office, Disney won't go ahead and spend money making a sequel, but some movies lend themselves well to a series (like the Narnia movies)...but, again, had the first Narnia film done poorly, for example, there wouldn't have been a second...and we know what happened with that franchise now. And I'm blabbing. You get the point.

As far as this film goes, it's not based on a series of books, so Disney would have to add a lot of filler (not necessarily bad filler, but not true to the novel) if they make it into a franchise.

[blackcauldron85]

http://blueskydisney.blogspot.com/2009/ ... r-sea.html

20,000 Writers Under the Sea

Actually, it's only the third writer, but it sure does feel like that many sometimes...

Finally, there is good news regarding the Nemo/20K prequel. Justin Marks, who replaced Bill Marsilii is being replaced by "Braveheart" scribe Randall Wallace. This is indeed very good news. Wallace tends to write the kind of sweeping, macho action-adventure that I can see this becoming. And I could see it being good depending on how much of a rewrite it is...

[Disney Duster]

BUT some people plan trilogies to tell the whole stories they want to tell, before they know if anyone would like to hear their story or not. It's the story they imagined that spans over the length of three films.

Not that I think this is really legitimately a brand new story someone feels they need or badly want to tell, and in three films no less.

[blackcauldron85]

Here is an interview (the other 2 either seem to not really have anything to do with this movie, or seem to be a copy of the first interview...)

http://blueskydisney.blogspot.com/2009/ ... g-sea.html

[merlinjones]

If they are going to do this project, it needs to have a more visionary director with a superior storytelling and characterization sensibility.

With this subject matter more appropriate talent can easily be found. There is no need to proceed in this direction.

[2099net]

I can't say I'm happy about Will Smith's casting.

Yes, Nemo was Indian Hindu in the novel - well, actually I don't think that this was established until the sequel The Mysterious Island (which although published second, was probably a prequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea*). Part of Nemo's motivation was to get revenge on the British Empire who killed his family.

The thing is, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a rather boring book. It's basically a travelogue, which has a small sci-fi-ish bent because of the scope of The Nautilus. It is actually more "Finding Nemo" than you may think, as the bulk of the book is concerned with describing undersea creatures like a nature book. Of course, it has the Giant Squid attack at the end, but that's really it as regards to great excitement.

The reason I'm not up on Will Smith's casting is I see this new Nemo trilogy being another brain-dead all action blockbuster, with little or no worthwhile content, logic or meaning. The amount of big-budget crap being pumped out into the multiplexes these days is beyond a joke.

While (as I said) the original novel is far from great (and although I've not read it, Mysterious Island sounds worse!) I feel the chances that they did have to give Nemo depth and character will be squandered.

If this is to be a trilogy, starting with detailing Nemo's younger years, I doubt Disney will go into the darkness implied by Verne. Don't expect any wholesale slaughter at any rate. In fact, don't expect any proper historical contextualisation. It will all be submarines, squids, depth charges and undersea shipwrecks/ruins I guess. With lots of explosions. In short, it will have nothing to stand out from the past decade or so of such blockbuster movies.

Yes, I can be a grumpy sod at times.

* No Wikipedia says its the sequel.

[blackcauldron85]

20K? No Way...
http://blueskydisney.blogspot.com/2009/ ... o-way.html

[Barbossa]

All I got to say is if McG directed, Captain Nemo would've wanted to trash some lights.

[blackcauldron85]

A little more info:

Disney's Rich Ross halts production of 'Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/ne ... 8304.story
(via animationguildblog.blogspot.com)

[Disneyphile]

A few months ago, Disney decided to torpedo McG’s plan to make a new version of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and it was largely thought that the heroic Captain Nemo and iconic submarine the Nautilus would remain sunk at the bottom of the development ocean. Well, now comes a surprising twist: David Fincher is aiming to raise it back up into production.

It’s a little bit out of leftfield for several reasons. Fincher isn’t exactly the person we’d have guessed would want to tackle a big-budget action studio adventure and you wouldn’t naturally think of the genius behind Fight Club and Zodiac as the Mouse House’s first choice for such a film. How things change! Fincher has been stretching himself with ambitious fare like Benjamin Button and is busy finishing up birth-of-Facebook drama The Social Network.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/feed.asp?NID=27890

[estefan]

Wow, with Fincher tackling this project, it could prove to be very strong. Considering 20000 Leagues Under the Sea is my favourite live-action Disney flick, I'm curious to see how it goes.

Now, will Brad Pitt be playing Captain Nemo or Ned Land? Considering he's at his best when playing more un-conventional roles (Fight Club, Burn After Reading, Twelve Monkeys, etc.), I can see Fincher casting him as Nemo.

[blackcauldron85]

Sean Bailey: David Fincher Believes ‘20,000 Leagues’ Will Be His ‘Empire Strikes Back’
http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/07/28/sea ... ikes-back/
(via mouseplanet.com)