McG's '20,000 Leagues' Remake Gets a Rewrite

Could the lack of story direction in Terminator Salvation be behind the new move by Disney to hire Randall Wallace to rewrite McG's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? The trades report that Wallace, an Oscar nominee for Braveheart who has also written and directed We Were Soliders, will take over for Justin Marks and Bill Marsilli. The movie is supposed to be a kind of origin story of Captain Nemo, which is why the title is actually the unwieldy 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo. It could mean a lot of information that wasn't in the first movie some 50 years ago or even in Jules Verne's novel. I didn't know that there was actually a Captain Nemo follow-up Verne wrote that contains some more biographical details about the mysterious hero. Based on his best work, Wallace writes two things really well: Strong leading men and big action stories with moral consequences. I'm not sure the sci-fi fantasy of Jules Verne is the best use of his skills, but it's certainly a good gig to land. Disney is looking at a 2011 release for the film, and this update doesn't change that; Wallace will reportedly hammer out the script this summer. I'm curious to see what the budget looks like. Certainly, McG isn't as hot a commodity as he was in April, when his deal was announced. Terminator had great effects but wasn't all that involving on an emotional level. It didn't feel like I was going for a ride so much as I was being driven over. So Disney might be concerned that the screenplay they had was another dull thud in McG's hands. And rewrites don't usually happen because the studio loves the script. So...food for thought. SocioFluid