Disney continues to expand its efforts to adapt their classic movies into live-action with another adaptation of a classic story. Despite Pan being released the previous year, Disney has attached a director and a screenwriter to their upcoming live-action adaptation of Peter Pan.
As a new effort to bring their classic characters to life, Disney has been working on pushing out a wide variety of adaptations pulling from their catalog of highly successful animated films. One of Disney’s most recent live-action adaptations, The Jungle Book, has garnered mostly positive reviews from critics and now stands at a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Jungle Book follows Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Maleficent as previous live-action entries from the studio. This will be just the beginning for Disney as the studio prepares for more adaptations with movies in various stages of development, including Beauty and The Beast, Mulan, and Dumbo.
According to Deadline, Disney has hired David Lowery to direct a Peter Pan movie with a script to be written by both Lowery and Toby Halbrooks. Lowery and Halbrooks have already been working with Disney on Pete’s Dragon, which will be a remake of the 1977 film of the same name.
Peter Pan will likely be following up the Tinkerbell spin-off adaptation, Tink, with Reese Witherspoon attached to play the titular character. The report states that “it is possible that there could be some crossover cast.” However, nothing has been confirmed by the studio.
Disney will follow up Joe Wright’s Pan, which was just released last year to poor box office numbers and lackluster reviews. Given that audiences were not enthralled with the last Peter Pan live-action movie, will Disney be able to change their minds? Pan faced some harsh criticism even before the movie came out due to the casting of Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, as well as questions as to the need for yet another Peter Pan film. Whether it was the critics or the audience’s lack of interest in the character, the movie reportedly wound up losing Warner Bros. $150 million, which is something Disney would not want to repeat.
The new Peter Pan will challenge whether audiences are willing to watch a familiar story being told yet again. While Disney has created more successful adaptations of their previous films, it will still be a test to see whether audiences will flock to a new Disney film or if Pan fatigue has truly set in. It’s likely that Disney can learn from Warner Bros.’ mistakes and create a new Peter Pan film that can excite audiences, but Disney will have to be more cautious with this adaptation.
Screen Rant will keep you updated on Peter Pan‘s development as more information is made available.
Source: Deadline
