The Most Important Sci-Fi Novel Deserves a Great Modern Adaptation

Posted by Jonathan Klotz | Updated 2 seconds ago

When I went to Disney World as a kid, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea it was my favorite ride, and for 20 minutes, which is an eternity compared to a modern park ride, I got to live out my childhood dream of sailing with Captain Nemo on the Nautilus. The ride was closed in 1994 and replaced The Little Mermaid. Now it’s 30 years later, and Jules Verne’s classic novel still hasn’t made it to the Disney parks and, worse, hasn’t received a modern film adaptation despite being the novel that helped launch the entire sci-fi genre.

Popular Science-Fi Book

This is Jules Verne’s place 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea it was a huge success when it was first published in 1869, and again in 1871, when an illustrated version hit bookstores around the world. Like many classic works of science fiction, Verne took a futuristic view of submarines when he came up with the Nautilus, Captain Nemo’s advanced submarine that he used to terrorize shipping lanes. However, considering Nemo’s motives as a pure man of science and nature lover, Verne inadvertently created the first eco-terrorist.

On the surface, the novel is a sci-fi romp, but dig deeper, and there are references to the political turmoil of the time, the impact of the Industrial Revolution, and how the natural world is being ruined forever. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea there’s a lot going on beneath the surface, but instead of making it difficult to adapt, it can help make it easier and more relevant today, nearly 150 years after it was first published.. That makes it even more surprising that the last time someone turned this novel into a movie was 70 years ago.

The Last Great Movie Adaptation

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, released in 1954 by Walt Disney, starring Kirk Douglas as the harpooneer Ned Land, and one of Hollywood’s leading men, George Mason, the donkey Captain Nemo, was a smash hit, and although box office numbers of the time are hard to come by , estimates put the gains at about $8 million over four years, or $91 million when adjusted for inflation. That puts it almost twice The Joker 2 the domestic box office is complete.

Mixing the components of The Mysterious Islandthe next uncredited novel, with the first novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seathe film is still faithful, for the feelings of 1954 at least, to adapt the sad story. Nemo’s rough, nihilistic edges tend to be a bit off, but Mason does an excellent job of a complex character who is both a hero and a villain, depending on who you ask.

Nautilus Means Well But Falls Short

Despite the lack of a modern film, which makes no sense given the success of the 1954 film, the BBC adapted it. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the new series The Nautiluswell-intentioned and incredibly effective but missing the point. The modern series is Nemo’s origin story and mini-song, changing his book origins as a fallen Indian prince to enslave him under the employ of the East India Company, a 19th century military adventurer.

Instead of being a man of science who looks beyond the chaos of the human world, Nemo, played Star Trek: Discovery’s Shazad Latif, in The Nautilus it starts out with a quest for revenge on a British company, which works a lot, but then again, it’s not really Nemo. He is a traumatized and broken man, but as a big fan of the 1954 film and the original novel, something is missing, since it is a prequel, which may be intentional, and at least someone is trying to tell this story today, if it deserves a big stage.

We need an IMAX Spectacle

Think blockbuster 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea plays on an IMAX screen. All the beautiful underwater vistas of the Pacific combined with the fear of giant squid in deep water, surface storms, and tropical islands shining in the sea, is a story that should be told in the largest possible format. We deserve a new version of Jules Verne’s seminal story that finally does justice to his original vision.