X-Men: Apocalypse director Bryan Singer’s next project, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, will officially begin production this fall.

X-Men director Bryan Singer confirmed he was working on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when he announced it via an image of the script for the film last year on Instagram, which was written by Dan Studney and Rick Sordelet. This came a few months after director David Fincher finally dropped out of the project he was originally working on with Disney.

Back when Fincher was still helming the adaptation, he had gone to Brad Pitt, Daniel Craig, Matt Damon and Channing Tatum for the lead role. The reported 140 day shoot in Australia proved to be too much time away for the actors.

Rumors swirled that Disney wanted Thor’s Chris Hemsworth instead, but David Fincher disagreed and left the project, causing Disney to scrap the film. This would be the final nail in the coffin of that adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Not many seemed excited about the project other than Fincher, so dropping the film may have been Disney’s goal all along.

But Bryan Singer decided to jump in and helm the project with Fox behind the production, and while Fincher would have most likely had an exciting take on the film, Singer has directed quite a few solid films in the last few years. He’s also finishing up X-Men: Apocalypse, which looks like it should be an interesting X-Men movie.

Deadline reports that Bryan Singer has a childhood passion for the novel, and says, “I have dreamt of retelling this classic story. Without revealing too much, it contains not only the original characters of Captain Nemo, Ned Land and Professor Aronnax, but also some new and original characters and sci-fi plot twists culminating in a timeless adventure for all ages.”

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea will be interesting to see on the big screen, although ocean-based films haven’t been going too well at the box office, with Ron Howard’s Moby Dick adaptation, In the Heart of the Sea, flopping critically and financially this past year despite having Chris Hemsworth as the lead.

With production set to begin with Singer directing this fall, we hope he has more success as he steps away from the X-Men franchise. The last time he did another big film outside of X-Men’s universe he brought us Superman Returns and Jack the Giant Slayer, so let’s hope he has better luck with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.