Sometime in 2004, it occurred to me that the late Irwin Allen’s ’60s sci fi TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea could make a serviceable big-screen movie, to say the least. Why not? Hollywood is always remaking TV shows as theatrical movies. Miami Vice is getting the large-screen treatment this summer, and I’ve got high expectations for it. Even when a classic like The Wild, Wild West became a misunderstood movie, the bad reviews and word of mouth didn’t stop filmmakers from remaking Starsky and Hutch and The Dukes of Hazzard for the big screen. Didn’t even stop WIll Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld from working together again eventually.
The possibility of a movie Voyage sent me on a mission. I got on Ebay and ordered some VHS tapes of the original series. I got a kick out of the show’s cheesy charm. When my wait for the DVDs finally ended this February, I was able to watch more episodes. The bold crew of the nuclear submarine Seaview took to the waters each week on adventures ranging from James Bondish spy missions to traditional science fiction tales about mad scientists, giant sea monsters and aliens. “They even had a leprechaun,'” a user review on the Internet Movie Database is headed. The increasingly far-out nature of the stories was a symptom of Irwin Allen shows, such as the better-remembered Lost In Space. Some early episodes would have made decent hard science fiction before the show gave in to more and more hokum. Through it all, Richard Basehart as Admiral Harriman Nelson and David Hedison as Capt. Lee Crane usually kept a straight face. Just for that, they deserved more credit.
But wait! Some may recall that Voyage started out as a movie. It starred Walter Pidgeon (Forbidden Planet) as the Seaview‘s inventor, Admiral Nelson. His secretary, played by Barbara Eden, was engaged to Capt. Crane (Robert Sterling). They raced into the ocean to save our planet from certain disaster despite oppositon, both human and multi-tentacled. Think Armageddon or The Core with submarines. And Jules Verne’s influence on Allen is ostensible to this day.
I know. Underwater films, unfortunately, haven’t done that well at the box office. The Abyss and Deepstar Six all sank. They say Lost In Space, the motion picture, didn’t make enough money to warrant a sequel, despite opening as “the #1 movie in America.” Still, there’s a morsel or two of info on the Internet about a big-screen remake of Voyage in the works from Fox 2000.
I don’t readily believe it, though I’m confident someone will make it happen eventually.
Imagine a 21st-Century Seaview plunging into a world of new adventures beneath the surface. With the right big names, it could happen. Surely, it could give the mostly-forgotten ’90s TV series Seaquest DSV a run. And let’s not gorget the Flying Sub! Voyage‘s equivalent of the shuttlecraft from Star Trek, it emerged from the Seaview‘s underbelly to fly from underwater into the sky and back. It would be a disappointment if a movie version omitted such a wonderful machine.
And what undersea creatures could Nelson and crew encounter in their travels! Fans of the TV show remember mutant plankton, menfish, and a giant “fossilman.” All hilarious rather than horrific, but hey, it was ’60s TV. The supposed movie is reported to be like Alien underwater, which is well within the realm of the television series. So is it ever going to happen?
One thing that I trust would be corrected is the fact that the original crew was all-male. Implausible for a program set in the near future. So I’m sure there’ll be female crew members aboard the new Seaview.
On the off chance anyone in Hollywood happens to come across this writing – or if someone who knows someone in Hollywood does – consider the possibilities. They’re right there – at the bottom of the sea.
Reference:
- Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea DVDs can be purchased through www.amazon.com, www.ebay.com, or video stores such as Suncoast.
