"The Wolverine" helmer to direct Disney's "Captain Nemo"

PanARMENIAN.Net - "The Wolverine" helmer James Mangold has signed up to direct Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo". David Fincher of "Fight Club" was previously attached to the post but he quit to direct the critically-acclaimed "Gone Girl", AceShowbiz reports.

Captain Nemo is the main antihero in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" who was first introduced in 1870 by Jules Verne. He is a scientific genius who roams the depths of the sea in his submarine, The Nautilus, built on a deserted island.

The movie is meant to be an origin story about how Captain Nemo constructed the Nautilus. Disney has long expressed its interest in bringing the story to the big screen, hiring "Seven" scribe Andrew Kevin Walker to pen the script. "Gothika" scribe Sebastian Gutierrez is now working on the latest draft.

According to Deadline, production will begin this fall, "but since Disney's film is a true origin story, it might well be different enough to be made in the future." Mangold is prepping the sequel to "Wolverine" but will be able to focus his attention on "Nemo" down the line.

Fincher revealed in an interview two years ago that he exited the project due to the fact that he and the studio could not agree on who should play the lead roles. "I wanted Aronnax to be French, God forbid! It got to be a little too confusing to me," he said. "I had this argument with a studio executive one time where he said to me, 'Why is it that the actors always side with you and we're paying them?' And I said, 'I think it's because at some level, they know that my only real allegiance is to the movie.' "

In 2014, Sony also announced its plans to develop the movie with "Smallville" writers but it never came to materialization. Last fall, Bryan Singer shared on Instagram a picture of a script written by him titled "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". It had not been picked up by any studio.