Director James Mangold (Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma) will direct a Captain Nemo origin film for Walt Disney that will be an original story rather than a direct adaptation of the Jules Verne novel. Sebastian Gutierrez (Hotel Noir and The Eye) is writing the script. Fearful Wolverine fans should rest easy as reports from all the Hollywood trades indicate that Mangold is still hard at work on prepping his shoot for The Wolverine sequel. However, as luck would have, there's another X-Men director who plans on making a film starring Captain Nemo, Bryan Singer.
The X-Men: Apocalypse director has stated that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea will be his next film for Fox, following Apocalypse. With Apocalypse set to hit theaters in May and The Wolverine 2 still set to shoot, it looks like Singer's version will hit theaters well before Mangold's take. Another difference is that Singer's version will be based on the Verne books will Mangold's will not. Regardless, it will be very interesting to see which X-Men director can deliver the better Nemo feature.