It seems a few days can’t go by without yet another announcement about Disney planning a live-action version of their classic properties.
Just last week the studio added an Aladdin prequel Genies to a pile that already includes a new Jungle Book movie, a Tinkerbell pic set to star Reese Witherspoon, a Prince Charming-centric flick and feature length expansion of the Fantasia segment Night on Bald Mountain.
Now THR reports that Disney is digging back into their archives once more to develop a live-action remake of one of their more undervalued films and the studio’s last before Walt’s death – 1963’s Sword in the Stone.
What’s most interesting is not that they’re developing the project in the first place – it’s to be expected for just about every one of their old properties at this point – but rather who they’ve got to pen the script: Bryan Cogman. He is best known for his writing and producing work on HBO’s Game of Thrones, for which he has received four WGA nominations. He notably wrote the season 4 highlight episode “The Laws of Gods and Men.”
Does this mean we’ll be getting a more hardcore version of the classic young King Arthur/Merlin story? Probably not. Cogman has been working on a version of popular fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering, as well as young adult fantasy adaptation The Young Prince.
I can absolutely see why they’d want to bring Sword in the Stone to live-action life, what with the success of GoT and the enduring popularity of Lord of the Rings. To me it makes a lot more sense than a live-action Aladdin prequel focusing on the genie!
The new Sword in the Stone doesn’t have a director yet – maybe they can convince the very suited Kenneth Branagh, since he directed Disney’s Cinderella to such a huge success? – but it will be produced by Brigham Taylor, a former Disney production exec and one of the producers of the new Jungle Book.
Source: THR