Lots of random tidbits of news from the weekend, but it all kind of links up… so bear with me!
Two long-in-the-works Disney projects have finally gotten directors. First, following in the tradition of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion, Disney has been planing a movie based on Disneyland’s Matterhorn ride for some time. According to Slash Film, though the project originally titled The Hill (again, don’t confuse that with Sidney Lumet‘s awesome military prison film of the same title, which starred Sean Connery) the project is currently referred to as Untitled Explorers Project and has finally landed a director, Brian Beletic. While Beletic has never directed a film, he has quite the resume of directing commercials and music videos (which seems to be the way to break into film these days…)
Beletic, along with writer Justin Dean Hall (Spread) and Justin Springer (Tron Legacy, Prom), will be tackling the film, with the official plot summary of “A small group of young, super adventure/explorers, each with a specific skill set, are brought to the remote backcountry of the Pennine Alps under various guises for a trek across one of the planet’s remaining untouched realms. They do this with extreme skiing, snowboarding and mountaineering.” Of course, since it’s based on the ride expect a yeti or two…
Next up, Maleficent, a film based on the villain of Disney’s classic animated film Sleeping Beauty told from her perspective, with Angelina Jolie as the titular villainous. Sounds a bit like Wicked to me, actually. According to Slash Film, Robert Stromberg, a special effects veteran who has been working on films since the late 1980s, has been picked to direct the script written by Linda Woolverton, who wrote Alice in Wonderland. Though its Stromberg’s first film, he definitely has the necessary background to make something like this.
Originally Tim Burton was attached to direct Maleficent after his success on Alice in Wonderland, which brings us to my final story: Burton has become very interested in directing a new adaptation of Pinocchio (which is not the same project as the Guillermo Del Toro stop-motion version) that is set up at Warner Brothers. Burton has all sorts of interest in this type of material, of course, but what makes the story even better is that Burton wants Robert Downey, Jr. to play Geppetto, the woodcarver who makes the Pinocchio puppet. The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the story, says that Downey is very interested in the project and is even more interest in working with Burton. Of course, both Burton and Downey tend to be very busy people, but I imagine Warner Brothers would love to get this project moving…
So lots of exciting stories… unless, of course, you’re burned out on “updated” fairy tale movies. In that case… sorry.
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