Disney Studios is developing a reimagining of its 1986 sci-fi live action feature Flight of the Navigator with a female lead, a project that Bryce Dallas Howard is attached to direct and produce for Disney+.
The original movie, starring Joey Cramer, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Veronica Cartwright, follows a boy who travels eight years into the future from 1978 and has an adventure with an intelligent, wisecracking alien ship, named Max. Paul Reubens provided the voice of Max in the film which was released in late July 1986 grossing an uninflated $18.6M at the domestic B.O. Randal Kleiser, who had directed Paramount’s big hit Grease, and The Blue Lagoon, directed the original Flight of the Navigator off a screenplay by Michael Burton and Phil Joanou.
John Swartz, Howard’s partner at her production company Nine Muses, and Justin Springer are also producing.
The project reteams Howard with Disney+ as a director, the multi-hyphenate having already helmed two episodes of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Chapter 4 “The Sanctuary” and Chapter 11 “The Heiress”), and an episode of the upcoming spinoff series, The Book of Boba Fett.
Howard stars next in Universal and Amblin’s Jurassic World finale, Jurassic World: Dominion, which opens on June 10, 2022; that franchise through five movies having already clocked over $5 billion WW. She is a 2012 SAG ensemble winner for Dreamworks’ The Help, released by Disney, and was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Actress Miniseries/Movie category for As You Like It. Howard’s feature credits include The Village, Spider-Man 3, Terminator Salvation, Disney’s Pete’s Dragon, and Paramount’s Oscar-winning Rocketman, and she’s currently shooting Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle.
Howard is repped by WME, Management 360, and attorney PJ Shapiro.
Filed in Flight of the Navigator Movies