Roland Emmerich goes on a Fantastic Voyage

You have to admire Roland Emmerich's scope and imagination. Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, Stargate, Godzilla and the upcoming 10,000 B.C. Sure there's some duds in their but there's some pretty entertaining movies too and when your dealing with the end of the world... it's not always that easy to pull it off. Emmerich reminds me of a mid-2oth century George Pal who gave us so many disaster flicks that he often kept repeating the same themes but when his movies worked (The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, although the latter he only produced) they were superbly entertaining. If I could describe Emmerich in few words I would say. BIG IMAGINATION which usually results in ENTERTAINING BLOCKBUSTER. But rarely do his movies ever shine.

Variety report that Emmerich will direct another movie which requires a big imagination. He is remaking the 1966 sci-fi classic Fantastic Voyage for 20th Century Fox with the writers of National Treasure in talks to pen the screenplay.

"Voyage" is about a scientist who is dying of a blood clot. His only chance for survival is for five scientist colleagues to be miniaturized in a ship, and injected into his bloodstream.

Emmerich is gonna have a hard time beating the original. Directed by the often mis-understood Richard Fleischer, Fantastic Voyage was an epic film that starred the acting heavyweights of Stephen Boyd, Donald Pleasance, Racquel Welch and the great Edmond O'Brien. Though I know Emmerich is a great admirer of the tale. Ten years ago he had plans to direct a sequel to the movie which would take place 3 decades after the original flick but then Godzilla bombed... and those plans were shelved. Now in the age where studio's and directors have no problems remaking classic movies, a sequel is not the way to go for Emmerich and I wish him luck. He's the right man for the job... but it's a movie that doesn't need remaking.