Fantastic Voyage is a 1966 science fiction film written by Harry Kleiner. Set during the height of the cold war, the plot followed the story of the inventor of a shrinking device who becomes comatose as a result of a blood clot in his brain. In an effort to save this man, a group of people board a submarine and shrink down to microscopic size in order to destroy the clot.

With a long history of trouble development, the remake of Fantastic Voyage is expected to have a late 2010 release date. Originally expected to be a James Cameron film, Roland Emmerich was presented with the opportunity to direct after Cameron turned his attention to Avatar. Emmerich promptly threw out the draft script that Cameron had penned mainly because the film was set in the future while Emmerich believed it would have been "much more cool and fun" to set it in the present.