Every Live-Action Remake Disney Plans To Make

Disney already rules the film industry, but lately they've began rolling out a plan that could actually break the box office — they're beginning to release live-action adaptations of their most famous animated films and cartoons. The movies, which began with Maleficent in 2014 and Cinderella in 2015, are bringing big names and even bigger budgets to classic fairy tales, and taking millions of childhoods back to theaters in the process.

While everyone knows about the journeys of huge princesses like Belle and Mulan to the screen, Disney is also planning movies around famous villains, sidekicks, and more that you may not have realized are in the works. Here are all the live-action remakes that Disney is currently planning to make.

While no casting announcements have been made for the upcoming live-action Mulan adaptation, Disney did already make a good decision by hiring a female director to helm the project. The studio announced in February of 2017 that Niki Caro (Whale Rider) will direct the project, making her just the second woman set to direct a movie budgeted at over $100 million, after Ava DuVernay with A Wrinkle in Time.

The script was initially written by Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin, but it has been rewritten by husband and wife team Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, who were behind Jurassic World and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. According to The Hollywood Reporter, making the film culturally authentic is important to the producers, leading to the addition of Hong Kong-based producer Bill Kong (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). The studio is apparently looking to cast actors mostly from mainland China.

Sony is also planning a live-action film about Hua Mulan, with Game of Thrones' Alex Graves attached to direct based on a script from Jason Keller (Mirror Mirror).

The live-action remake of The Little Mermaid already has two very, very big names attached. Disney legend Alan Menken and Hamilton and Moana's Lin-Manuel Miranda are both set to write songs for the film, while Miranda (who is also set to star in Disney's upcoming Mary Poppins sequel) is also set to produce along with Marc Platt (La La Land). Menken wrote the songs for the 1989 cartoon. There is no word yet on writer, director, or stars, although Lindsay Lohan has offered to take on the part of Ariel.

This isn't the only live-action film about The Little Mermaid in the works. Working Title and Universal were also reportedly working on a film about the character. Chloe Grace Moretz was previously attached to star, but she told The Hollywood Reporter in September of 2016 that she was planning on dropping all of her future films in order to "reassess who I am and find myself within my roles again." While Electrick Children director Rebecca Thomas was announced as being in early talks to direct in December of 2015, Working Title has yet to offer any updates on the film since Moretz's departure.

Disney isn't planning to make Winnie the Pooh into a live-action movie (yet), but they are planning to make a movie about his companion, Christopher Robin. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will be a fantasy project focusing on an adult Christopher Robin who has grown out of his imagination and now prioritizes work over his family.

"With his home life on the brink, the last thing his life needs is the return of Pooh, who requires his help in finding his friends again," writes THR. "Robin has to find a way to help both sides or risk losing everything he holds dear."

The film is said to combine magical realism and fantasy. Marc Foster (World War Z) is attached to direct based on a script from Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Philip).

Disney's live-action The Lion King remake is set to bring back one of the cartoon's stars, with James Earl Jones, who voiced Mufasa, signed on to reprise the part in the Jon Favreau-directed film. Community and Atlanta star Donald Glover is attached to star as Simba. Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can) wrote the script. The studio has yet to say if the film will use mostly CGI or if it will use some other form of making the animals of Pride Lands come to life.

Favreau, who is known for directing Iron Man, announced a release date of July 19, 2019 through Twitter, reigniting fan excitement for this highly-anticipated movie. The video clip above is just a concept trailer created by Smasher, but it's definitely got us excited and hoping to see something official soon.

Disney is also planning a live-action movie surrounding Peter Pan's sidekick, Tinkerbell. Called Tink, the film is set to star Reese Witherspoon as the title character. The actress will also produce the project alongside Bruna Papandrea (Gone Girl), based on a script from Victoria Strouse (Finding Dory). According to Variety, the project was first announced in May 2015, but there is no timeline for the movie to go into production and no official plot details have been released.

Director Jon Favreau and writer Justin Marks are both set to return for The Jungle Book 2, the sequel to Disney's 2016 live-action remake The Jungle Book (above). The Jungle Book did well at the box office and with critics, earning $966 million worldwide and getting a 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. There is no word on what the plot would be or if it would follow a similar plot to the 2003 animated film.

Disney is planning to bring Roald Dahl's classic story, James and the Giant Peach, back to the big screen with a live-action film, according to Deadline. Sam Mendes (Skyfall) is in talks to direct the project, which was made into an animated film in 1996.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is prepping a live-action film about Prince Charming. THR said in 2015 that the studio was closing a deal for a script from Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son writer Matt Fogel. Disney hasn't said which version of the character they will use (a Prince Charming has appeared in Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella), but the script is supposedly "a revisionist take on the fairy tales."

Disney is planning a live-action remake of 1963's The Sword in the Stone based on a script from Game of Thrones writer Bryan Cogman. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brigham Taylor, who worked on the live-action remake of The Jungle Book, is attached to produce.

According to Deadline, Disney is looking to begin production soon on Cruella, their live-action film focusing on the villainess from 101 Dalmatians. Emma Stone is set to star as the titular character in what Disney says will be an origin story. While not many plot details are available at this time, the film has a solid writer behind it, coming from a script by Edge of Tomorrow and Spectre's Jez Butterworth.

Alex Timbers, a Tony nominee for Peter and the Starcatcher and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and the co-creator of Amazon's Golden Globe-winning Mozart in the Jungle, is in negotiations to direct. Timbers backed out of directing the stage musical adaptation of Disney's 2013 hit Frozen due to creative differences.

There have already been a number of live-action movies based around the world of Peter Pan, the boy who refuses to grow up, but Disney is planning another. According to Deadline, the project will be another team-up for Pete's Dragon director David Lowery and writer Toby Hallbrooks.

2015's Pan, the most recent film adaptation of the character from Warner Bros. Pictures, starring Levi Miller as the title character, flopped at the box office, earning only $128 million on a $150 million budget. It was also panned (sorry not sorry) by critics, with a 27 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes) is set to direct Disney's live-action Aladdin adaptation, which the studio says will be an "ambitious and nontraditional" take on the classic story. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie, which comes from a script by John August (Big Fish), will keep the musical elements of the original while telling a nonlinear story, similar to Ritchie's films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.

To date, we haven't seen any footage, but knowing Ritchie's style, we've got a hunch it won't look anything like the Disney on Broadway rendition (above.)

Not only is Aladdin getting the live-action treatment, but his sidekick is as well. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is planning to make a live-action comedy adventure about the realm of the genies, focusing specifically on Aladdin's Genie and how he ended up stuck in a lamp. Apparently, the studio wants to release Genies ahead of the live-action Aladdin remake. The script comes from Friday the 13th's Damian Shannon and Mark Swift.

Yep, even chipmunks aren't immune from the Disney live-action craze. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio picked up a live-action Chip 'n' Dale project in 2014, based on a script from Alice's Misadventures in Wonderland writer/director Robert Rugan. The film would use CGI and live-action and would provide "an updated take on the characters."

Like fellow classic princesses Belle and Cinderella, Snow White is also gearing up for a live-action film. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney ordered a script for the project from Erin Cressida Wilson (The Girl on the Train), which is set to expand on the original story from the animated film (although no details are available on what they will change). The film is also going to get some new songs from Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, the songwriters behind the wildly popular La La Land.

Most people probably haven't heard of Rose Red, but she is related to someone who every Disney fan should be very familiar with: Snow White. Rose Red is Snow White's sister, and, although she wasn't featured in the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs movie, she has appeared in the Grimms' fairy tales that the Disney property is based on.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rose Red will put the character right into Snow White's story by showing her teaming up with the seven dwarfs to go on a quest to rescue her sister after she is put in to sleep by the witch's poison apple. The script was written by Justin Merz (The Boxcar Children), but it was pitched to the studio by Snow White and the Huntsman's Evan Daughtery, who had the idea to change the story from a stand-alone to a "companion piece" to Snow White.

Robin Hood is already coming to the big screen in 2018 with the Ben Mendelsohn and Taron Egerton-starring Robin Hood: Origins, but Disney is still planning to put the classic character on screen again with Nottingham & Hood. The movie is said to have the same tone as the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, with the goal of making an action movie franchise. The script for the movie came from Brandon Barker, a fairly new writer whose most notable credit was the 2010 dramedy Wicked Bad.

Disney began looking into a live-action Pinnochio in 2015, when Deadline reported that the studio had ordered a script from What's Eating Gilbert Grape's Peter Hedges. The story is said to focus on the relationship between father and son, the ramifications of Pinnochio's penchant for lying, and living in a fantasy world.

Disney's film is separate from the Guillermo del Toro Pinnochio adaptation, which he has said will be a dark, stop-motion take on the story set in Italy at some point between World War I and World War II. Del Toro has been working on the project since 2008. There is also a separate Italian project which Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah) is attached to direct.

Will Smith was initially in talks to star in Disney's live-action Dumbo adaptation, which will be directed by Tim Burton, who helmed Disney's live-action Alice in Wonderland film. However, talks between Smith and the studio broke down in February of 2017 due to salary and scheduling issues. According to Deadline, despite the setback in finding a star, Disney is still looking to push the film, which is based on a script from The Ring's Ehren Kruger, to production as quickly as possible.

One of the stranger planned live-action films, Disney plans to make a movie surrounding Chernabog, the demon shown in one of the sequences in Fantasia. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio is looking into a story based on the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment of the 1940 cartoon, which was probably the creepiest part of an (at times) very creepy film. Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, the duo behind Gods of Egypt and Dracula Untold, will write the script and executive produce the project.