Is Colin Trevorrow’s big non-Star Wars project for Disney a remake of Flight of the Navigator?

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Colin Trevorrow (SAFETY NOT GUARENTEED) is a name that has seen more than its fair share of headlines and speculation of late as Disney hones in on a director for STAR WARS: EPISODE VII, but the man took to Twitter not too long ago to dispel the rumors that he was in talks to direct. Trouble was, his way of dispelling the rumor was by saying that “there is another film we all love that I’m currently trying not to mess up,” leaving things just as murky as they were before he even tweeted at all.

But that all changes today with the news that Trevorrow and screenwriter Derek Connolly have been hired by Disney to rewrite its 1986 cult-classic sci-fi adventure FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR, with Trevorrow in line to possibly direct after all is said and done.  The first draft was from Brian Copeland (“Arrested Development”), and told the story of “a 12 year-old boy who goes missing and reappears eight years later having not aged a day. At the same time, an alien spacecraft crashes nearby, which may explain the boy’s disappearance.”

Something that looks to differentiate this remake from many others is how, while Trevorrow absolutely loved FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR, Connolly is far from a helplessly grinning fanboy.  “‘Flight of the Navigator’ wasn’t a seminal movie of my childhood but I remember liking it and the original meant a lot to Colin as a kid, so it’s really his baby. It’ll be good to have some balance so it’s not two fanboys writing the movie.”  There’s no timeline yet as to when the draft is due or when production might start, but Trevorrow and Connelly have already sold an unidentified spec script to Disney that is also in the works and Connolly is currently writing a project for Pixar.  So all in all, it seems we’ll be seeing their names connected with Disney for a fair while yet.  As usual, stay tuned for more details.