Flight of the Navigator, the 1986 sort-of classic, will be remade under the stewardship of Safety Not Guaranteed team Colin Trevorrow and David Connolly. The duo made a splash at Sundance with their gentle time-travelling comedy, and it appears Disney – already in business with the pair on an untitled project – wants to give them a full initiation.

The project is currently being developed as a potential directing vehicle for Trevorrow, with Connolly on board to co-write. Perhaps a peace offering for all the dodgy rumours flying around concerning Trevorrow’s potential candidacy for Star Wars VII, Flight of the Navigator retains a mild cult status, but the stakes are significantly lower. No-one’s childhood will be getting raped if a Flight of the Navigator remake fails to take off. Except perhaps Trevorrow’s, who is deemed a huge fan by his writing partner Connolly: “Flight of the Navigator wasn’t a seminal movie of my childhood but I remember liking it and the original meant a lot to Colin as a kid, so it’s really his baby.”

Flight of the Navigator has a touch of time travel about it to boot, so Trevorrow should know his way around the material. Disney’s original details a young boy who goes missing, only to reappear eight years later not having aged a day. Meanwhile, a mysterious crashed ship seized by NASA holds the answers to his disappearance. Directed by Randal Kleiser, it starred Veronica Cartwright, Sarah Jessica Parker and Paul Rubens as the voice of the ship. It was awesome. Of course, Disney eating its own babies and farting out rehashes of films no-one much cared for in the first place doesn’t exactly fill us with anything approaching excitement. But Flight of the Navigator might have enough residual mid-80s goodwill to raise at least an eyebrow. As long as Short Circuit is left alone we won’t raise our voices.