The classic Disney kids’ film Flight of the Navigator is making its way back to us—this time as a remake from actress and director Bryce Dallas Howard (The Mandalorian). Howard will produce and direct the in-development film, which will have a female lead this time around.
The 1986 Flight of the Navigator (pictured above) starred Joey Cramer as a boy named David who falls into a ravine and is presumed missing—until he reappears, eight years later, having not aged a day. When hospital testing reveals the image of a spaceship in his brain, NASA gets involved; somehow, they have the very spaceship David’s brain pictures. The drone ship (voiced by Paul Reubens!) calls to David, and when they’re reunited, reveals that David was a specimen taken back to the ship’s homeworld for study. Unfortunately, said homeworld deemed humans too fragile for their time travel technology, resulting in his getting deposited back home eight years too late. But now that they’re both stuck at NASA, the ship needs David’s help in order to get home.
Randal Kleiser (Grease) directed the original film, which wasn’t a huge hit but was a huge film for everyone who saw it as a child. (If you don’t believe me, I’ll direct you to Emmet Asher-Perrin’s essay.)
Howard is best known as an actress (the Jurassic World franchise), but has been settling into the director’s chair with Disney via the company’s Star Wars series on Disney+: She directed two episodes of The Mandalorian, and also an episode of the upcoming The Book of Boba Fett.
There’s no word on who’s tasked with writing this new version of the film, or when it might begin production.
