Looks like we will have two different looks at the classic tale of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as Disney/Fincher are working on one, as well Ridley and Tony Scott will be creating their own.
Not a day after the announcement that Disney and David Fincher will work together on a new film based on Jules Verne’s ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ there is word that Ridley and Tony Scott are producing their own as well. Under their Scott Free banner they will produce a Travis Beacham [Clash of the Titans] script and are hoping that Russian director Timur Bekmambetov [Wanted, Day Watch and Night Watch] will sign on to helm the flick.
This is hardly the first time when two studios happen to pick up on the same public domain story to adapt to a film.
Aside from pairing films that have similar themes (Ants/Bug’s Life, Armageddon/Deep Impact, Dante’s Peak/Volcano) this comes from a novel that has been released so long ago that the rights fell to public domain, meaning any studio can make a movie about it and not pay royalties to anyone.
This happened when Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds film was in development and an independent studio was also creating a film based on the novel. And right now there are two studios developing Three Musketeers films.
Now 20,000 Leagues will get two films and we will forever be comparing them as well.
Seeing this reminds me of the original film. I thought it was awesome when I was 5! It would probably disappoint pretty hard if I were to watch it now, but definitely looking forward to these upcoming films!
Speaking of two similar films going at it has the smoke cleared on the two films that are both about people in Italy leaving notes for Juliet (of Romeo&Juliet) followed by typical love story? Last I knew one of the makers was trying to sue to have the other one’s movie stopped, or at least delayed (obviously so they could release first so that when the other one comes out people will be less interested).
Letters to Juliet was the #3 boxoffice here in North America over the weekend, so I assume it came out.
I haven’t got around to seeing it yet.
My guess is the Fincher one will be better, but you never know.
Sound weird that this can happen, most cases one’s got money behind it, and the other is some straight to DVD type(seems anyways)
I’m a fan of the original and stoked to hear this.
well see