With “The Jungle Book
” bowing this weekend, Walt Disney Pictures is developing its next live-action adaptation of an animated classic. The studio is heading back to Neverland.
David Lowery, who has already directed a remake of Disney’s “Pete’s Dragon
,” has come on to helm a live-action adaptation of “Peter Pan
.” Toby Hallbrooks is penning the script.
Disney’s 1953 animated classic is still the most successful adaptation of the J.M. Barrie novel about the boy who couldn’t age. Sony’s “Hook
,” starring Robin Williams and directed by Steven Spielberg, underperformed in 1991, considering the players involved, and last year’s “Pan
” bombed.
Disney seems like the right choice to pull off the live-action retelling, given its success of late in turning its animated classics into live-action hits. “Cinderella
,” “Maleficent
” and “Alice in Wonderland
” all dominated box office charts.
“Pete’s Dragon
” bows on Aug. 12, and Lowery is also developing “The Old Man and the Gun” with Robert Redford. He is repped by WME and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.
The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.
Source: Variety
