A Flight of the Navigator reboot is taking off at Disney+, with Bryce Dallas Howard manning the (space)ship.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Howard will serve as both director and producer on Flight of the Navigator, with John Swartz, Howard’s partner at production company Nine Muses, and Justin Springer also producing. The movie re-imagines the 1986 sci-fi adventure film of the same name, which Randal Kleiser directed for the now-defunct Producers Sales Organization before Disney acquired the distribution rights.
The original Flight of the Navigator was a modest critical and box office success that amassed a cult fanbase after hitting the home market. Its story centers on a twelve-year-old boy who vanishes in the year 1978 and inexplicably reappears eight years later without having aged a day. In time, scientists at NASA discover a connection between the boy and a mysterious UFO that holds the key to reuniting him with his family in the past, with Paul Reubens (credited under a pseudonym) voicing the spaceship's robotic commander "Max."
While Howard's Flight of the Navigator reboot will center on a young female protagonist, it's otherwise unclear how the film will differ from the original version. The movie will serve as the Spider-Man 3 and Jurassic World actor's non-documentary feature directorial debut, as well as her latest project for Disney+. Howard previously directed a pair of episodes of the streaming service's live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian, on top of an episode of the upcoming spinoff, The Book of Boba Fett.
Disney first attempted to reboot Flight of the Navigator in 2009, with Flora & Ulysses writer Brad Copeland penning the screenplay. Three years later, the studio hired Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow and his writing partner Derek Connolly to revise the earlier script draft, with Trevorrow also lined up to direct. When that version of the project didn't pan out, Disney lost the rights to Lionsgate, which recruited Lucifer showrunner Joe Henderson to write a new script in 2017. However, that iteration similarly fell apart during pre-production and the reboot made its way back to the Mouse House.
Howard will return behind the camera when The Book of Boba Fett premieres in December. She's also reprising her role as Claire Dearing for Jurassic World: Dominion, which opens in theaters on June 10, 2022.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter