Director Shawn Levy may walk off the James Cameron-produced remake of Fantastic Voyage if studio Twentieth Century Fox doesn’t allow him to cast a major star as the film’s lead.
The Hollywood Reporter has put together a story that states that the director has begun to look at possibly moving on to other projects if Fox doesn’t relent on their reticence for casting a big star, with a big salary, to headline the film’s cast. The film is already looking to be fairly expensive due to the heavy amount of CGI needed to realize its story of a submarine being shrunk to microscopic size and injected into a dying scientist to save his life.
Of course, there is one star who Fox feels could be a big enough draw to justify their large salary quote and that is Will Smith. And by good fortune Levy is supposed to meet with him in a couple of weeks about the film. But sources are saying that if Smith doesn’t sign on for the film Levy may very well walk.
For his part, Smith already has a few projects that he’s looking at, including one with M. Night Shyamalan that he will star in with his son Jayden.
If Levy walks, Fox will be back to square one in trying to attract a director. Levy also wouldn’t be the first director to have left this project. Paul Greengrass and Louis Letterier were also set to helm the film but dropped out.
