Variety is reporting this morning that Disney's planned big screen version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea has been put on the back burner. The film was reportedly the next directorial project for McG, and a start date of February had been mooted, presumably then with a release date of summer 2011.

However, it's now been revealed that McG has departed the project. And it also occurs to us that it could well have ended up going head to head with Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which is also set to start shooting early next year, with summer 2011 in mind.

McG, meanwhile, is still attached to a fifth Terminator film, and is also said to be developing the drama Dead Spy Running. We suspect, though, that a fifth Terminator movie with McG directing is as likely as him returning to shoot 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea right now.

Here's the Variety story.