Last year, two of Disney’s biggest releases were Aladdin and The Lion King. With each earning more than a billion in worldwide grosses, the studio will continue to produce live-action remakes of their beloved animated classics until the well runs dry. Let’s just hope they don’t get to a point where they’re remaking Pixar movies, too.
Mulan was up next with a spring release, but due to COVID-19, the film has been delayed. What’s next for the Mouse House, though? Well, they’re already planning remakes of Robin Hood and Bambi, among others, and now comes news that they’re also looking at Hercules, something that We Got This Covered told you last year.
Jeffry Silver (Tron: Legacy, The Lion King) and Karen Gilchrist (The Mandalorian, The Lion King) are producing the remake of the 1997 animated film and plans are for it to be a theatrical release with songs from the original in addition to a few new ones. And as for possible directors, four names are said to be in the mix: Jon Favreau, Joe and Anthony Russo and Gore Verbinski.
Of course, Favreau is a logical choice, having already directed The Jungle Book and The Lion King to immense success. But does he really want to do it for a third time? He’s already deep into The Mandalorian, so I can’t imagine he would.
The Russo Brothers are interesting, too, and also have a fruitful relationship with Disney having directed four Marvel movies including the last two Avengers films. But their interests appear to lie in more dramatic and mature material at the moment. They wrote and produced Extraction at Netflix and their next directorial effort is Cherry, a story about a drug addict (Tom Holland) who decides to rob banks to pay off huge debts. I doubt we’ll be seeing any song and dance numbers in that one.
Verbinski, meanwhile, could work out well but then again, Disney might be hesitant to give him a massive budget after The Lone Ranger bombed in 2013. He makes visually stunning movies, but the problem is they’re never cheap.
In any case, Hercules is a well-known story and one that has already been told not once but twice in the past six years. But with that Disney seal of approval, you can expect a more successful and family-friendly version this time around.