So we tried to be as positive as possible with the news of Disney’s The Lion King CGI/live-action remake, even though it was ruining our childhood. But the info released for this latest of Disney’s live-action remakes includes details we just cannot get our heads around.
The weirdest news comes in the form of who they’ve picked to direct the film: Guy Ritchie.
Guy Ritchie, as in director of Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Yes, he also directed the Sherlock Holmes reboots (which starred Robert Downey Jr as the titular detective, of which the first was rather good but the second not so much), and stylistically he is obviously accomplished. Still, we’re failing to see any crossovers with how this is the guy to direct the feat that is Aladdin.
Dai Lin, a producer of Ritchie’s Holmes movie, will produce what is to be, according to the Hollywood Reporter, ‘an ambitious and non-traditional take’ on the 1992 animated classic.
John August (known for writing a number of scripts for Tim Burton projects including Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Dark Shadows and the Johnny Depp Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) will write the screenplay, so yay, we guess?
Sources say the new film will keep many of the musical elements of the original, so at least we can be grateful for that. Like The Lion King, Aladdin has previously been successfully adapted for Broadway.
Casting info will be released at a later date.
Let us know what you think.
