Bryce Dallas Howard is set to direct and produce Walt Disney Studios’ reboot of “Flight of the Navigator,” which reimagines the original 1986 film with a female lead. The new movie, which marks Howard’s feature directorial debut, is slated to premiere exclusively on Disney Plus.
The original “Flight of the Navigator” was directed by Randal Kleiser and written by Mark H. Baker, Michael Burton and Matt MacManus. The family sci-fi adventure film followed 12-year-old David Freeman (Joey Cramer), who goes unconscious after falling down in the woods, only to get abducted by an alien spaceship that transports him from 1978 to 1986. David spends the film trying to reunite with his family, but gets entangled with the police and NASA along the way.
The filmmaker will produce the reboot alongside Justin Springer and John Swartz, who is Howard’s partner at her production company Nine Muses. Howard’s movie will not be the first attempt to remake “Flight of the Navigator” — as Colin Trevorrow (who directed Howard in “Jurassic World” and “Jurassic World: Dominion”) and Derek Connolly were attached to a project on behalf of Disney in 2009. Also, in 2017, Lionsgate and the Henson company announced a reboot with Joe Henderson as writer. Neither project came to fruition.
Known for her on-screen work in the “Jurassic World” trilogy, “The Village” and “The Help,” Howard has also become a prolific director, with the 2019 documentary “Dads,” two episodes of “The Mandalorian” and an episode of the upcoming series “The Book of Boba Fett” under her belt. Howard has also directed several short films that have screened at the Sundance, Toronto and Cannes film festivals.
Howard is repped by WME, Management 360 and attorney PJ Shapiro.