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Disney has announced that Guy Ritchie, who directed 2019’s live-action Aladdin starring Will Smith that made over $1 billion at the box office, is now lined up to direct another Disney live-action film. He will direct the live-action take on Disney’s classic animated movie Hercules.
ABGO, the production company headed up with Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo, is producing the movie. Deadline reports that Dave Callaham (Wonder Woman: 1984, Shang-Chi) wrote an initial draft for the script and that Disney is now finding more writers.
Ritchie is known for his action-oriented, gritty films like Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. He also made Snatch and Revolver.
1997’s Hercules was directed by Ron Clements and Jon Musker. It was a musical that told the story of Hercules, voiced by Tate Donovan, and his fight against Hades, who was played by James Woods. Whether or not the new live-action version will also be a musical remains to be seen, but brothers Joe and Anthony Russo told Collider in 2020 that they hadn’t decided yet, though music will play a role.
Anthony Russo told Collider that he and his brother are “Hercules fanatics.” When they caught wind that Disney was interested in making a live-action film, they made the case to executives that they were the right partners to produce it. “And here we are,” Anthony Russo said.
Their new live-action Hercules will not be a “literal translation” of the animated movie. They are keen to bring “something new to the table” with the movie.
“We’re going to give you a different story. I think we’ll do something that’s in the vein of the original and inspired by it, but we also bring some new elements to the table,” Anthony Russo said.
Hercules is just the latest classic Disney animated movie to be made into a live-action film. Other upcoming projects in Pinocchio starring Tom Hanks, Snow White featuring Rachel Zegler, and The Little Mermaid featuring Halle Bailey as Ariel.
