Well folks, Harry here. And it seems yet again I am to come to you with... Tragic news. You see... The script for this film has made the production rounds in Los Angeles... Most everyone that read it.. fell in love. The movie gets financed... Then... Just two months from shooting... Some GENIUS producers get it in their heads that Keanu Reeves should play a younger Captain Nemo and ... well... The project dies because... Now get this. The director, Christophe Gans, actually believed that to be miscasting... Can you believe that. Someone thinking that Keanu Reeves would be wrong for Captain Nemo? Shock... Gasp... Sigh. Often times it seems idiots are placed in power over fantastic projects. In this case, it's a great Captain Nemo and Jules Verne adaptation. For Roger Avary, it was his and Neil Gaiman's BEOWULF. For Guillermo Del Toro, it's his HELLBOY film which seeks only a domestic partner and it would be a go... Yet some want STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN as HELLBOY, and Guillermo thought that was a bad idea. Can you believe that? Or there's Paul Verhoeven and CRUSADE. Or Robert Zemeckis and BAD TROUT. Or Gary Ross and WALLY & PEPPER. Chris McQuarrie and his ALEXANDER THE GREAT. Protosevich and I AM LEGEND. Sam Hamm and Terry Gilliam on WATCHMEN. Great projects that just sit. Great projects, with all the talent in the world behind them.... rearing to go... And idiots standing in their way. Here's the story of NEMO...
Harry, sad news indeed.
Apparently development of this movie (with a reported budget of well over $40 Million) (HARRY NOTE: I heard it was at $60million) based on Jules Verne's classic 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA was canceled just 2 months before actual shooting was to start. In an recent interview with French magazine DVDRama director Christope Gans explains the recent developments (translated from French):
"[Némo] has been stopped 2 months before shooting was supposed to start because of artistic differences on the casting. I didn't agree with the British financiers' choice. I decided to pass and do THE PACT OF WOLVES. It is in my opinion, a wise decision. [...] I invested over 2 years and today I am not able to compromise anymore on what actor should play Captain Némo. After 2 years of work one has a precise enough idea of what one wants and this does not allow changing leads 2 months before shooting. I have no regret... I wanted BILLY CRUDUP (HI-LO COUNTRY) and they wanted to impose KEANU REEVES on me.."
The interviewer also asked Gans: "Are you going to make it one day?"
Gans: "Maybe. If they want to change their opinion. For me, the movie is already made in my head. Caro made all models, I have a complete storyboard... The movie only asks to be shot..."
Now, this is sad new indeed but I really have to admire Gans for sticking to his guns. He is extremely passionate about this movie. Apparently WINONA RYDER liked the script so much and wanted to be in it badly. She asked $2 Million. Gans reportedly said: "Forget her, I prefer put this money in the creation of my octopus!" You have got to love this guy!
Gans' previous movies include NECRONOMICON and CRYING FREEMAN (Hardly known in the US, it was the most successful movie of 1997 in French cinema's toppling other major US action releases.)
It's hard to believe a project like this could end up not being made. Look who's on board SAMUAL HADIDA, producer (KILLING ZOE, Incidentally the first guy to buy a TARANTINO script ever!) Marc Caro, production designs (CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, DELICATESSEN) and (reportedly) ROGER AVARY and THIERRY CAZALS co-wrote the script with Gans! (HARRY NOTE: Actually, Roger Avary did not co-write the script... the info on IMDB and other places has been.... WRONG)
I love Jules Verne's classic and enjoyed RICHARD FLEISCHER's 1954 Disney adaptation (Starring KIRK DOUGLAS). Gans' incarnation is to use the characters from the original story but the events in NEMO are set 20 years before the events in Disney's original 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA film, using the American Civil War as a backdrop. Knowing Gans he won't hold out on the action and special effects!
DAMNIT, ANYONE WITH THE POWER AND FINANCIAL MUSCLE TO MAKE THIS MOVIE HAPPEN, PLEASE CONTACT GANS OR HADIDA!!!
Morphic.
