A reboot of the 1986 kids sci-fi adventure Flight of the Navigator is in the works at Lionsgate, with Joe Henderson being brought on to pen the script and The Henson Co. producing. Henderson is the showrunner for the Fox television series Lucifer, which is set to begin its third season on October 2nd. He has also written for White Collar, Graceland, and Almost Human, and Disney purchased a spec script he wrote titled In the Land of Imagined Things. First reported by THR , the 1986 Disney film was about a 12-year-old Florida boy who is abducted by a UFO in 1978 and returns eight years later, exactly the same age and with no memory of what occurred. NASA officials connect his disappearance to a recovered UFO and bring him in for study, with everyone trying to unravel the mystery.

The 1986 film was written by Mark H. Baker, Michael Burton and Matt MacManus, directed by Randal Kleiser, and starred Joey Cramer, Paul Reubens as the voice of the UFO, Cliff DeYoung, Veronica Cartwright, Matt Adler, Albie Whitaker, Sarah Jessica Parker, Howard Hesseman, Robert Small, Jonathan Sanger, Richard Liberty, Iris Acker, and Raymond Forchion. It received moderate reviews upon its release and earned $18.5 million at the box office, with a $9 million budget.

Disney previously attempted a remake in 2009 and 2012. Brad Copeland was brought on to write a script in 2009 and director Colin Trevorrow and writer/producer Derek Connolly were brought in 2012 to rewrite the script. There is no word on how the story might be adapted or what time period it will inhabit.