by Holly O'Neill
22nd Mar 2017
22nd Mar 2017
Live action Disney remakes are box office gold at the moment, and now at least 20 Disney remakes are on the cards – all remakes, prequels, spinoffs and sequels of their many beloved animated classics over the years. We’re still delirious with joy that Beyonce will be staring in the anticipated remake of The Lion King, and in celebration, we’re looking back at Holly O’Neill’s round-up of some of the films to get excited about.
You’ve heard about The Little Mermaid and Mulan but some more of the live-action Disney movies have slipped under the radar. Here are the ones we are most excited to see, coming soon to a cinema near you.
SNOW WHITE
Disney is developing a remake of Snow White, with?Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, La La Land songwriters on board,The Girl on the Train screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson and March Platt (La La Land, Wicked, Grease Live) producing.
MARY POPPINS
Mary Poppins Returns is set for release on Christmas Day next year and has an incredible cast – Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Angela Lansbury, Julie Walters, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Mortimer and… 91-year-old Dick Van Dyke will be returning! He won’t be playing Bert, but he will be playing the son of a character he played in the original, the bank president Mr. Dawes – you remember the song, Fidelity Fiduciary Bank.
MALEFICENT
Angelina Jolie is reprising her role in the Maleficent sequel. Linda Woolverton, who wrote the script for the 2014 origin story, will be back to write the sequel which will be released sometime between 2017 and 2019.
CRUELLA DE VIL
Emma Stone will portray Cruella De Vil in the live-action remake set for release next year, which has original live-action Cruella De Vil, Glenn Close, as an executive producer.
TINKERBELL
Tinkerbell is getting an origin story too, and in maybe the greatest casting ever, Reese Witherspoon is set to play her.
THE SWORD IN THE STONE
The live-action remake of the story of King Arthur and the wizard Merlin is being written by Bryan Cogman, writer-producer of Game of Thrones and will be produced by Brigham Taylor, who produced the 2016 live action remake The Jungle Book.
ALADDIN
Guy Ritchie will direct this live-action remake, which is looking for a diverse cast and will remain a musical.
THE LION KING
Jon Favreau is following up on The Jungle Book with a live-action remake of The Lion King, and – Hakuna Matata (it means no worries) – it will keep the songs from the 1995 classic.
PINOCCHIO
There are two Pinocchio remakes on the cards at the moment -?Guillermo del Toro has a dark version in development and another version is being written by Peter Heges, writer ofWhat’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
DUMBO
Tim Burton is directing the remake of Dumbo, the story of an elephant with big ears who learns to fly. It’s a mixture of live action and CGI elephants, with Eva Green and Danny Devito set to star.
Next up, I want to see a live-action remake of The Swan Princess and Anastasia, but definitely the animated version of Anastasia – not the real story. Oh, you don’t know Anastasia’s real story? Well if you have eight hours to go down an Internet spiral of Googling the last Russian monarchy and the Romanov dynasty, be prepared for a shock because if you’ve seen the animated film, you have been told some straight up Liza Minelli’s about what happened to Princess Anastasia.
What animated movies would you like to see a live action remake of?