Guillermo del Toro is taking a year off from directing – what does that mean for Fantastic Voyage?

The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro is taking a year off from directing, according to Variety. Del Toro did a group interview at the Hotel Virrey de Mendoza in Morelia, Mexico and told the crowd that he needed a break. “I’m taking a sabbatical for a year as a director. I was going to do ‘Fantastic Voyage,’ but after ‘The Shape of Water’ I need to take pause,” he said.

Del Toro spoke about his other upcoming projects, saying that The Shape of Water, which opens on December 1, is finished. He added, “I have two projects with Bertha Navarro which we’re studying. We’re talking about producing a film by Patricia Riggen, I can’t say the title, but she’s a super solid director, very nice person. She is the type of writer-director who can benefit from a strong production structure which helps her to express what she’s interested in.” He also said he still hasn’t finished the script for the black and white film Silver, which is about a masked Mexican wrestler who discovers that politicians are vampires and decides to take them down.

Del Toro also said that there is news about Season 2 of his animated Netflix series Trollhunters, but that he couldn’t say what it was. “Yes there is news, but Netflix would kill me if I talked. It will come in the next four weeks.”

Fantastic Voyage was set to begin its lengthy prep period in spring 2018, to begin production by fall 2018 at the latest, and to be released in 2020.

Set to make use of the same 3D technology Cameron used for Avatar, Fantastic Voyage is about a scientist who is dying of a blood clot. His only chance for survival is for five scientist colleagues to be miniaturized in a ship called the Proteus, and injected into his bloodstream. The film is a remake of the 1966 original, directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Raquel Welch and Donald Pleasence.

A Fantastic Voyage remake has been in the depths of development hell for many years with a revolving door of potential directors (Roland Emmerich, Paul Greengrass, Shawn Levy), stars (Will Smith, Hugh Jackman) and screenwriters (Shane Salerno, Laeta Kalogridis, Marianne & Cormac Wibberley)

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