Back in April, Disney “put on pause” what was supposed to be its next live-action remake, “Tangled,” as the studio continued to deal with the disastrous ramifications of its “Snow White” remake.
Now comes news that the film is back in development — and it might even be fast-tracked. Deadline is reporting that Scarlett Johansson is circling the role of Mother Gothel.
Michael Gracey (“Better Man”) is still set to direct “Tangled.” Jennifer Kaytin Robinson wrote the script. Sure, Gracey is an inspired choice to helm the project, but Robinson? Although she doesn’t have many writing credits to her name, she still penned this year’s horrendous “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and the middling “Thor: Love and Thunder.”
A modern retelling of the classic Rapunzel story, “Tangled” will be a revival of Disney’s Oscar-nominated 2010 animated feature of the same name, which grossed $600M worldwide, and was the studio’s 50th animated film.
If we thought the time had come for the mouse house to hit the pause button on its onslaught of live-action remakes, today’s news indicates the opposite. What this past summer’s billion-dollar success “Lilo & Stitch” proved is that audiences will still lap it up. Nostalgia sells.
Disney currently has “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Aristocats,” “The Sword in the Stone,” “Bambi,” “Robin Hood,” and “Hercules” in some form of development. Those are the ones we know of. Honest question: what was the last good Disney live-action remake? Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book,” released way back in 2016?
So, no, Rachel Zegler did not inadvertently help kill Disney’s live-action remakes — she just had the studio flinch for a tiny second. And now, on with the show.
Following “Air,” this is Affleck’s latest stint behind the camera. He has cast himself in the lead role, alongside Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun, and Gillian Anderson (“The X-Files”).