What will McG be directing after Terminator Salvation? Terminator 5? Nope. Disney has signed McG to direct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo for $8 million against 7% of the gross according to Variety. I’m likely to be screamed at by the anti-McG club, but I’m convinced that McG has the talent to make a visually stunning film, which is exactly what Nemo needs to be. What McG has lacked most of his career has been a good script. However, I’d almost rather him stick to a darker sci-fi path, especially after what I’ve seen so far from Terminator Salvation. This also seems like the perfect type of movie for Disney to release in Disney Digital 3-D.

Disney hopes to make the film this year, and McG is slotting it as his next, which begs the question — what does that mean for the next Terminator film, which is now in development. Halcyon hopes to have the fifth Terminator film in theaters for Summer 2011, which means that the film would have to go into production by April 2010, which gives McG more than enough time to make Nemo in between.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo was scripted by Bill Marsilli (Deja Vu) and tells the origin story of Nemo and his warship, the Nautilus. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was the first live action film in Walt Disney history, and is considered by many to be the most mature film they have ever produced. Based on the Jules Verne novel of the same name, the 1954 film told the story of a ship sent to investigate a wave of mysterious sinkings encounters the advanced submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by Captain Nemo.

The film is best remembered for the giant-squid battle and for the Nautilus itself. It won two Academy Awards in 1955 for Best Effects and Set Decoration, and was also nominated for Best Film Editing. By 1955, Disney Studios did not have enough space to be able to keep the large sets used during production of the film so instead of destroying them, they became part of a walk-through attraction in the Tomorrowland area of the newly opened Disneyland park in California, where it remained until 1966. The Submarine Voyage was another popular attraction based on the film took visitors on an underwater adventure.