Disney is making a live-action Dumbo movie as the fairy tale/animated classics-to-live-action trend continues!
After the success of Maleficent, which has grossed $600 million worldwide and counting, it seemed all but inevitable that the animated classics and fairy tale resurrection via live-action trend would continue. And now it appears that it will fly….at least as much as a CGI animated elephant can.
As first broken by The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is making its plans for a live action Dumbo movie known, and they have tapped the Transformers: Age of Extinction screenwriter to make it happen. Ehren Kruger, who also wrote the third Transformers film and Scream 3, has been tapped by Disney to adapt the 1941 animated classic to the big screen. The film is also set to be produced by Justin Springer, who has previously worked with Disney on 2010’s Tron: Legacy.
The studio is apparently confident that CGI will make a “live-action” Dumbo with his big floppy ears viable. And what certainly makes him truly viable is the fact that Maleficent made $600 million and the Disney/Tim Burton Alice and Wonderland made over $1 billion worldwide—with a sequel directed by James Bobin slated for 2016. Even if their live-action version of Snow White flopped with Mirror, Mirror, Universal’s version still rejuvenated the trend when Snow White and the Huntsman grossed $396 million worldwide. There will even be a sequel, though sans Snow White/Kristen Stewart for…obvious reasons.
It should also be noted that Disney is preparing to release a live-action Cinderella directed by Kenneth Branagh next March, with a teaser already out. They are also in pre-production on John Favreau’s The Jungle Book adaptation and a live-action version of Beauty and the Beast directed by Twilight: Breaking Dawn’s Bill Condon. Meanwhile, Universal is producing a Hans Christian Anderson focused version of The Little Mermaid with Sofia Coppola directing.
It really is a small world, after all.
If you’re interested, here is our list of Disney villains who should get their own movie (with our top sot already confirmed).
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