Roland Emmerich: ‘Very Overbearing’ James Cameron Is Why I Dropped Out of Fantastic Voyage Remake

Filmmakers Roland Emmerich and James Cameron did not see eye-to-eye on the long-in-development remake of Fantastic Voyage, with Emmerich recently calling Cameron overbearing.

During a conversation with fellow filmmaker Antoine Fuqua for Collider’s Directors on Directing event at San Diego Comic-Con, Emmerich opened up about his experiences working with Cameron on the film years ago. Emmerich didn’t hold back, calling Cameron “very overbearing” before saying he simply gave up on the project after a certain point.

“James Cameron is very overbearing, and so I, at one point, just gave up,” Emmerich said. “Because it’s like, ‘Is it your movie or my movie?’

“We were in very beginning stages. Because I said, ‘Gosh, why is he so overbearing?’ I have to say, I do my stuff, and when I can’t do my stuff, I’m totally not interested. As simple as that. So when somebody else wants to say something to me and is more powerful than me, I drop out.”

What is Fantastic Voyage?

Fantastic Voyage is a 1966 sci-fi movie that starred Stephen Boyd and Raquel Welch. The movie was directed by Richard Fleischer and told the story of a submarine crew that was shrunken down and ventured into the body of a scientist to try and repair his brain.

James Cameron has long been interested in directing a remake of the film, and in 2007, 20th Century Fox began pre-production on the project with Emmerich set to direct. However, Emmerich would leave the project shortly after. Other directors rumored to have been interested in the project at one point included Shawn Levy, Paul Greengrass, and Guillermo del Toro.

As of this year, Cameron has said that he still plans to make the remake at some point, although it’s unclear if or when it will ever make its way out.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter)

Anthony Nash

Anthony Nash has been writing about games and the gaming industry for nearly a decade. When he’s not writing about games, he’s usually playing them. You can find him on Twitter talking about games or sports at @_anthonynash.