According to this SITE, who quotes the MTV Movie Blog, James Cameron plans to make a 3D re-make of the 60’s Sci-Fi film, Fantastic Voyage. I read the book written by Isaac Asimov in Junior High School and mistakenly thought the film and cartoon of the time were based on this until I looked at the wiki entry (assuming of course that is correct).
The folks at Gamma Squad rightly point out that the 60’s version of Fantastic Voyage is most remembered for the scene where Raquel Welch appears in a white wet-suit. To this I ask, who wouldn’t remember a movie that Raquel Welsh appeared in a white wet-suit?
I don’t know, I think I’d rather see this re-make…
She’s not in Kansas anymore!
Oz can’t be that great a place. Given a choice between Oz and Kansas, she chooses Kansas?
They actually make a point of that in the first book (There’s aout 40 Oz novels) – her traveling companions ask her flat out “If the place you’re from is so terrible, why would you want to go back there?” and she honestly doesn’t know, apart from it’s home and it’s all she’s ever known. I think the point of that was that there’s a lot of people who’ll throw away good stuff they can have in favor of crappy stuff they already know. I’m probably guilty of that myself.
Dorothy’s completely absent from the second book (Which is my favorite in the entire series, excepting the creepy ending). Books 3-6 all start out with Dorothy either in Kansas, or somewhere else in the outside world, and making her way to Oz by some method or another – sometimes accidental, sometimes malicious, sometimes on purpose – and in the end of the sixth book, her and her aunt and uncle and their dog loose the farm once and for all, and go to live in Oz permanently.
The sixth book was intended to be the end of the series, but obviously that didn’t take, and Baum was back cranking out more books in a couple years when his funds ran low.
Interesting guy. He kept trying to start new series to prove he wasn’t a one-trick pony, then the series would fail and he’d end up having to tie them in to Oz to make anyone buy any of ‘em, so the “Oz-iverse” kept growing by leaps and bounds. Actually, I think I’ll go look up how many books there are, now I’m wondering…
This reminds me of something that Chesterton said about patriotism in Orthodoxy:
Ok, there’s 40 “Official” Oz books set in Oz, 14 by Baum, 19 by Ruth Thompson, his secretary, and six by two different authors. Then there’s two “Trot & Cap’n Bill” novels set outside of Oz, and one set in it, which counts as part of the 40, but, of course, the other two don’t. Then there’s at least two novels set in magical lands outside of Oz that are connected to it by internal references. Then there’s The Secret Life of Stanta Claus, which is also part of it. So, really, not as many as I thought. Four definitely-connected non-Oz novels.
In addition to those 44, there’s a whole freakin’ slew of unoffical Oz books.
I do not know why, but I could stare at that Raquel Welch photo all day.
Ought to see the one from “One Million B.C.”,Kit…hubba hubba
So, I’m guessing, the remake of “Fantastic Voyage” is going to extol the virtues of socialized medicine – given Cameron’s track record.
Raquel Welch – the prototypical “Long on legs, short on sylables” actress. I remember in the early 90s when she went to Chicago to give a pro-democratic pro-abortion speech during an election year, and she said “I’ve come to Chicago because Chicago is one of the fifty two united states…” She also seemed to think that the Great Lakes were part of the ocean.
But it’s not like they were paying her to talk back in the day, probably for good reason.
So anyone here (Other than me) seen Fantastic Voyage? Running my site, I find a lot of people didn’t spend their entire childhood glued to old crappy movies like I did…
Loved Fantastic Voyage as a kid. In addition to the requisite rainy-day viewings, they even showed it at my elementary school, too. Days before video meant anyone could watch the movie anytime, Kit.
Love Innerspace even more.
Had a “sci-fi theater,” every Saturday afternoon when I was growing up. Probably scarred me for life.
Remember walking into a classroom and spotting the projector at the back? Bliss.
Especially if you saw one or two or the big reels sitting there next to the projector…AWESOME!
Good times. Good times.
Fantastic Voyage is still on my personal favorite top-10 sci-fi movies. Last summer I watched it with my son who was then-14. He ate it up.
This movie, and Sean Connery James Bond movies, seemed to always get shown on ABC. I can still hear that ABC movie of the week music in my head, just thinking about it.
At the time, Fantastic Voyage was to me the ultimate cool of what the future would bring: lots of Racquel Welches in white wet suits.
Actually, Outlaw, the thing we all recall wasn’t just Racquel in the wet suit. It was her in the wet suit, being squeezed by the antibodies, and then when the guys got her back into the sub they started grabbing at her body to pull off the antibodies.
The story goes that in the first take, all the guys grabbed at her everywhere EXCEPT for the chestal area — too shy. Cut! shouts the director, who tells them listen guys, you gotta rescue her, she’s strangulatin’! So on take 2, the guys naturally all dive at her chestal area. Cut! shouts the director again, who realizes that they’re going to have to choreograph this scene a little bit.
Oh yeah, I had the One Million BC poster, too. Right next to Farrah’s.
Got to give Racquel her props, though, for the job she did in The Three Musketeers. She was funny and lovable in that. And hot.
BTW, don’t bother with Asimov’s reboot novel, “Fantastic Voyage II.” He was always bugged about the bad science in the original story that he wrote the novelization for, and so he eventually went back and rewrote the story, this time with good science. But in the reboot, he forgot to put in the awesome. Snorrrrr.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was my favorite. Especially the flying sub from the TV show of the same name.
I was more into vampire and werewolf flicks when I was a kid. Most likely good training for the politics of today!
We were debating whether or not I should review this for my “Saturday Afternoon B-Movie Crap Fest” feature, but ultimately decided I probably shouldn’t, since it’s basically an A-picture, even if it is overwhelmingly silly.
@ Outlaw 13: It’s not the series, but we reviewed the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie here http://www.republibot.com/content/saturday-afternoon-b-movie-crapfest-%E2%80%9Cvoyage-bottom-sea%E2%80%9D-1961 and we’ve got a blurb on the flying sub here http://www.republibot.com/content/days-future-past-flying-sub-1965-1968