Fantastic Voyage - Production

Production

Isaac Asimov, asked to write the novel from the script, declared that the script was full of plot holes, and received permission to write the book the way he wanted. The novel came out first because he wrote quickly and because of delays in filming. Director Richard Fleischer originally studied medicine and human anatomy in college before choosing to be a movie director.

For the technical and artistic elaboration of the subject, Richard Fleischer asked for the collaboration of two people of the crew he had worked with on the production of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the film he directed for Walt Disney in 1954. The designer of the Nautilus from Jules Verne's adaptation, Harper Goff, also projected the Proteus; and the same technical adviser, Fred Zendar, collaborated on both these productions. The military headquarters is 100X30 meters, the Proteus 14X8. The artery, in resin and fiberglass, is 33 meters long and 7 meters wide; the heart is 45X10; the brain 70X33. The plasma effect is produced by chief operator Ernest Laszlo via the use of multicolored turning lights, placed on the outside of translucid decors.

Frederick Schodt's book, The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution, claims that FOX wanted to use ideas from an episode of Japanese animator Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy in the film, but never credited him.