Merrick here...

Roland Emmerich (THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, INDEPENDENCE DAY, STARGATE, and the forthcoming 10,000 BC) will direct the long-gestating remake of FANTASTIC VOYAGE for 20th Century Fox.

So says Variety, in an article positioned under HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2 on the front page (sigh).

This project has been in the wind for...jeeze...close to the lifespan of this site.

At one point, it was a vehicle for Emmerich and Devlin (who are now Devlin-less and Emmerich-less respectively).

At another juncture, it was a James Cameron film. Interestingly, Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment will produce the new film along with Emmerich's Centropolis banner. No word on whether Cameron will be directly involved with this iteration. He's kind of busy with AVATAR and all, so...

At this time, writers Cormac and Marianne Wibberley are orbiting the film. They wrote both NATIONAL TREASURE films.

For those unfamiliar with FANTASTIC VOYAGE, it's about an important dude whose life is threatened by an inoperable blood clot in his brain.

The solution? Use super technology to shrink a scientific team...inside of a miniature submarine...and insert them into the dude's body on a mission to operate from within.

The crux of the story is about their harrowing journey through the human body -- where the functions we take for granted (breathing, heartbeat, etc.) are enormous, horrifying, deadly obstacles to overcome. The approach here was interesting: many minute facets of the human body were presented as incredibly dangerous and extremely alien. It'll be interesting to see what kind of approach Emmerich takes.

Richard Fleischer (TORA, TORA, TORA! and SOYLENT GREEN) directed the 1966 original, which starred Raquel Welch as one of the intrepid travelers. For my money, one of the hottest moments in SF history is when Welch is covered by gooey human antibodies. Sort of a thinking man's bukkake, I suppose.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE also inspired the Steven Spielberg produced, Joe Dante directed INNERSPACE:

In my younger years, I constantly got this title mixed with with the completely unrelated NBC television series FANTASTIC JOURNEY...

Presumably, I won't be as easily confused now.

Maybe.