Cue the Blue Fairy. Pinocchio is about to get the Live-Action treatment. A writer has been hired to start development based on Disney’s 1940 animated feature “Pinocchio.”
According to Deadline, Peter Hedges has been hired to do the treatment. Among other projects, Hedges previously directed “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” for Disney based on his own script.
So far that’s all the news we’ve got. But it adds to a growing list of live action takes on Disney properties. We’ve already seen success with “Alice in Wonderland,” Maleficent” and “Cinderella.” Officially announced live action movies from Disney include “The Jungle Book” scheduled for a 2016 release and “Beauty and the Beast,” starring Emma Watson, arriving in 2017. Less firm, but believed to be in production include “Dumbo,” a film based on Winnie-The-Pooh characters, and “Mulan.”
Keep in mind that Disney is probably working ahead to make sure it has a good script from which to film and to have one solid release a year in the ‘remake’ category. Still it does seem like Disney really is mining their film library.
Which of Disney’s live-action remakes are you most looking forward to?
This is getting ridiculous…
I do agree, this IS getting a bit silly.
Altho I guess this was only to be expected. For decades, the film technology was simply not up-to-snuff to adequately transform the magic of the disney animation classics into live action spectacles. Remember, people have wanted these things for many years, they just couldn’t do them justice. But today the technology is more than there, virtually anything is possible. And so, with no more technological limitations, it seems ALL the movies that would have been spread out over the last 20-years(had the technology been there), are being served up one after another in a very short amount of time. And I’m not necessarily opposed to so many if they are each done well.
By the way, is there any thought that Disney is doing this so overtly fast in order to be the “first” to remake the classic fairy tales…I know for example that-that Kristen Stewart led Snow-White remake already happened, and even a non-Disney beauty and the beast was planned for a while before being scrapped. I wonder if Disney is wasting no more time and now trying to beat everyone to the punch, before they see the success of films like Alice and Cinderella and jump on the remake bandwagon(ala the current superhero-trends).
I understand the gut reaction of ‘Another?’ and there seems little doubt that Disney is hoping to make this another annual or bi-annual tradition in the same vein as their original offerings and Pixar’s offerings. But let’s be honest, the live action films so far have been wildly different.
Alice was completely divorced from the original animated film. Maleficent was a completely different story inspired by, but not limited by Sleeping Beauty. And Cinderella was a faithful adaptation that spruced things up along the edges to keep it unique.
There are original stories to be told for some of these, Pooh for instance will likely be more like Maleficent or Alice.
And because I really need to mention it.
Cinderella came out in 1950. It’s 65 years old.
Pinocchio came out 1940. It’s 75 years old.
The original films are classic, and they are timeless, but it’s been around a full lifetime since they came out. And they are a different take on them using a different medium (Live action versus animated.)
All we can hope if their version of Pinocchio is better than th other live action versions that have already come out, especially the most known one from the 90s.
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