Mark H. Baker was a UCLA film student who came up with the initial story of what eventually became "Flight of the Navigator." The idea for his very first screenplay came from a dream, and was originally entitled "Vanished." In the 2020 documentary "Life After the Navigator,"Baker explained the project's origin story. "It was [originally] more of a serious film. In my story, they build the ship from his memory, so they're experimenting with technology that they don't understand but David does, and it gets to a point where he realizes they're never going to let him go."

At one point, Brian de Palma had interest in directing it; John Avildsen of "Rocky" and "Karate Kid" fame later became attached as the helmer, before "Grease" and "Blue Lagoon" lenser Randal Kleiser got the call.

The film's theme, tone and script ended up a tug-of-war between the two companies involved in its production Mark Damon's Producer Sales Organization and Disney."There were two companies that made it, Producer Sales Organization and Disney," director Kleiser recalled in 2020. "Producer Sales Organization was an action movie place, they wanted to have governments trying to shoot down the spaceship and chases and things like that and Disney wanted to concentrate on the family story, so guess who won!"

In the end, Kleiser would say,"the compromises [between PSO and Disney] made the movie better."

Writer Baker reflected: "Most of the elements that I had in my film were in the final film, but it's the changes that really make it different."

Two additions did come from Kleiser himself, who dropped in references to a pair of pop culture classics he had worked on: "Starsky and Hutch," and "Grease" (via "You're The One That I Want," which can be heard on a radio).

Read more:
The Untold Truth Of Flight Of The Navigator - Looper

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November 4, 2021 at 2:06 am by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Second Story Additions