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EXCLUSIVE: They certainly made a lasting impression with Se7en. Now, screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker has come aboard to work on the 20,000 League Under the Sea script for director David Fincher. Disney has been trying to find a compelling way to bring back the Jules Verne story of Captain Nemo as he creates his warship Nautilus. Given their previous dark collaboration, it will be interesting to see their vision for a Disney film based on one of the earliest live action pictures made by Walt Disney and released in 1954. (Treasure Island was the first, in 1950.) Disney famously bet his studio on a film best remembered for the giant squid scene. It became the second highest grossing film that year, won three Oscars and became the basis for a Disney theme park attraction. Walker, whose scripting credits also include Sleepy Hollow and The Wolfman, is repped by CAA. Fincher, who next releases The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has several potential next projects, and he has long been attached to Cleopatra at Sony with Angelina Jolie and producer Scott Rudin.
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“What’s in the boat?!”
It’s the Kardashians’ heads.
I hope anyway…
maybe my favorite deadline comment ever
Fincher has never been attached to Cleopatra with Rudin..and after their incredibly combative experience together making girl with the dragon tattoo…you can be sure that will remain a project they are NOT working on together.
Agree, he is “in talks” not attached. Very different.
Walker is one of my all time favorite screenwriters, check out the first draft of Eight Millimeter before uber-hack Joel Schumacher ruined it, the draft I read of The Wolf Man was good too. I was hoping him and Fincher were gonna do the movie version of Kolchak The Night Stalker together, that would have been nirvana, but I’ll take 20,000 Leagues no problem.
FINALLY! About time! One of my favorite directing-writing teams and it’s taken them this long to work together again??? I’m from Nebraska…where, when great things happen, you keep it together going forward.
Wait?… This is a Disney movie?
Well, now that you mentioned the dirt on drag tat. Do tell Simon.
Also, what happen to Beachman and Burns working on this?
Disney announce 2014 release of ‘Se7en Dwarves’
Iger says, “This could become a cottage industry.”
Ross says (pointing to Iger), “What he said.”
Would be very interesting to see Fincher make a summer blockbuster type film – hope we don’t see another Akira situation and he casts an Indian for Nemo.
Very true on 8mm. If youre a big fan of him get your hands on his adaptation of OF HUMAN BONDAGE Pascal developed at Turner back in the day..
I think it’s easy to tag Andrew Kevin Walker as a great screenwriter (And many do) based on the success that was his break out film, Seven.
But let’s keep things in perspective here.
It’s a well known fact that Schumacher screwed him over on 8MM, but he hasn’t exactly lit up the industry since, with the offerings of the less than impressive Sleepy Hollow, and the diabolical Wolfman, which should have been up for a razzie.
You can say his drafts were great, but at the end of the day, every screenwriter has to contend with being rewritten.
To put it bluntly, Kevin Walker seems to be living on an A Grade reputation whilst having a C grade career, and Hollywood seems to know it, which is why he hasn’t been as prominent as his reputation would suggest.
Sleepy Hollow was wonderful. To put it bluntly, you have a A-grade jealousy complex and a C-grade ability to appraise a writer with a successful writing career.
Dude, anyone should be so luck to have had one Seven in their career — and it’s not enough for you?! Also, Sleepy Hollow was awesome.
Sleepy Hollow was wonderful. To put it bluntly, you have an A-grade bitterness born of jealousy and a C-grade ability to appraise the work of a writer who has survived in the film industry for almost 20 years. Hollywood “seems to know” he is a talent, and a relevant one, and a talented one. What does Hollywood “seem to know” about you, Bob?
Bob’s too busy working on his A-grade spec re-imagining of THE BICYCLE THIEF set in Cleveland to reply to your retort.
He’s a good writer. What you write almost never ends up on screen. I wouldn’t blame him for Wolfman. I’m sure he has a story behind most projects of getting shit notes and being rewritten. Remember, the writer has NO say at the end of the day. Even the big ones can be rewritten or fired. It’s just how it works. The stars have to line up to get something made let alone it’s any good.
Sweet!
Also check out Red, White, Black and Blue, a great action comedy that should have gotten made. And again, the draft I read of The Wolf Man was very good as well, they hired a ton of writers after the fact but like with 8MM, I have the feeling if they stuck with the original script it would have been a much better movie.
All I stated was a personal opinion on Andrew Kevin Walker, that being that based on his body of work, I feel he is extremely overrated. I stand by that.
If you are to hold him up against the genuinely successful screenwriters like Stuart Beattie, The Coen Bros, Tarantino, and a myriad of others, he doesn’t measure up in any degree whatsoever. However, AKW has just as celebrated a reputation as any of them, which based on his body of work, is puzzling.
Is he talented? Absolutely. There is no disputing that, and that was never my debate. But has his talent truly extended beyond one script in order to back up the claim that he has more to offer than one great script? That’s questionable.
The majority of screenwriters fall off the map after their first film, due to the fact that they only tend to have one decent film in them. AKW seems to have been riding that one script wave for the better part of 2 decades. And good for him. My only dispute is with his reputation, which I feel is overstated.
I find it ironic that his biggest success following Seven, was the fictional account given of him having written the James Cameron directed Aquaman in Entourage, which grossed over $100 million in it’s opening week.
A shining example of the myth outweighing the truth, which definitely seems to sum up his reputation.
Oh Rob. Please can it.
How can we take you seriously when you mention someone like Stuart Beattie? The man who gave us GI JOE? I had to IMDB that name, and I worked on POTC – all four movies. Everyone at the studio considers Ted & Terry the genius behind that franchise. And let’s face it, not quite top notch writing now, is it?
AKW has several screenplays that are amazing. If you’ve ever written or even read a screenplay, you would appreciate his natural talent. Obviously, with executives who BUY these screenplays, he DOES have a great reputation.
Have you any idea what it is like to be a person who loves movies, writes constantly, sells their product consistently, but due to studio executive shuffles, rewrites, talent drop outs, changes in director, does not get to see their words on the screen? It must be agony. At least, being at the studio that hired AKW, I know this movie will get made, and that makes me all the more happy for him.
Disney’s SO DEAR TO MY HEART was before Treasure Island
So Dear to My Heart also contains wholly animated scenes along with live-action/animation scenes, so it is technically correct that Treasure Island was Disney’s first all live-action feature.
Disney spent the majority of the 40′s on package films and animation/live-action hybrids (Fantasia, The Reluctant Dragon, Victory Through Air Power, Song of the South, Saludos Amigos, Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, So Dear to My Heart, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, etc.). Because of post-WWII economic policies in England, Disney was more or less forced to use profits earned in the UK on UK production, and so, Disney began making (rather good, actually) UK live-action films. Treasure Island, The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men, The Sword and the Rose.
20,000 Leagues was Walt’s first Hollywood all-live-action feature (although it does have brief moments of SFX animation).
And again, read the scripts, the first drafts before they got mangled. He still writes good shit, and with Fincher at the helm, it should make it to the screen intact this time.
@OhRob: They are certainly some fair points you make. Including your point about Stuart Beattie; most wouldn’t know him, but they know AKW. Which brings me back to my point that AKW has a bigger reputation than bigger screenwriters.
Plus, amongst others, Beattie gave us Collateral, which in my opinion, was a pretty damn cool film.
I can’t say that I have ever had the experience of what you mentioned about what the agony of a screenwriter may have in getting a script onto the screen. I’m just a heavyweight fan of cinema, and make my judgements from outside the bubble; which is why earlier responses calling me Jealous, or a screenwriter ‘Writing the Bicycle Thief in Cleveland’ puzzled me. I don’t even know what that means!
None the less, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I respect the one you have given me.
It will be interesting to see when 20,000 leagues comes out with a genius director at the helm who is also friendly towards Walker’s material, as it will truly be the best indicator of telling us how far Andrew Kevin Walker has really come.
“To put it bluntly, Kevin Walker seems to be living on an A Grade reputation whilst having a C grade career.”
You say something like that, and then you’re puzzled when people take your snark and throw it back at you?
“it will truly be the best indicator of telling us how far Andrew Kevin Walker has really come.”
I’ve personally had enough with this mindset – because I used to share it. The whole “Oh, sure – that artist made something great once or twice, but to earn my respect, he or she must have a string of great films, or the next film must be great before I’ll give him or her my grudging respect.”
Life is not King of the Mountain. The screenwriter with the highest average rating on imdb does not “win” when he dies. Not every poem by Frost was a masterwork, not every cartoon by Chuck Jones was a masterwork, not every song by Paul Simon is an American Treasure, not every film by Orson Welles, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, John Ford, Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick are masterpieces.
Is it not enough for you when an artist – any artist – produces *one* incredible and influential and moving piece of art? How much “greatness” do you need, in order to respect a living artist? Writers only design the house, they don’t build it. They turn over a blueprint and then have to watch as many diverse talents and forces assemble to build that house any way they see fit – for you to snark about someone as vulnerable as a screenwriter having a C-grade career with an A-grade reputation (because that someone only had one or two great films) demonstrates to me that your priorties are out of whack. I used to think like you, too. Film school does that. You spend about 10 years in this industry, grow a couple of grey hairs, get your ass kicked a few times, watch people do amazing things only to see that effort disappoint, — once you earn some perspective, that whole idea of Das UberAtrist falls apart.
James Dean was a terrific actor. Did we need to see him act into his 80′s in order to declare him such?
No – just a handful of films was enough. Buster Keaton was a breathtaking artist. Am I supposed to fault him for the work he was forced to do after the collapse of silent film production?
You say you’re a heavyweight fan, but I don’t think you’re heavy enough, because I’m not feeling the love in your post. I’m just feeling the snark.
Anyone who bothers to talk shit about AKW’s body of work simply doesn’t understand this business. Most of us would be thrilled to have his career and his credits.
I’m sure he would like to have more films made, who wouldn’t. It’s a crapshoot at the studio level with the script being only one small piece of a big puzzle…a puzzle that rarely gets completed.
This is a great collaboration and Disney has to be commended for going outside of their own comfort zone.
i’ve read bits of this page.Seems that you cannot compare writers that get to take their own words……..all the way to the screen(re:Coen bros),..with those that must hand it in like a report for the teacher to critic and correct.
my opinion – AKW is one of THE best.I’d love it if he could get the kind of intimate original stories he’s written to the screen as imagined.