Friday, September 30, 2016

The Disney List: Current Tally of Fairy Tale and Fantasy Films in the Works (@ Sept 29, 2016)

As promised, so you can keep up to date with the running tally of Disney fairy tale or fantasy projects coming to the live action screen, along with animation that's of interest, here's the latest list of all those in the works, with many just announced in April and May 20146.

These films are all in different stages of production, from early development through to nearing release and are in no particular order.

Not all films have release dates as yet.

As mentioned yesterday, you may want to bookmark this list, just so you have it handy.



Live Action:

  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Genie (Aladdin)
  • Cruella
  • Maleficent II (Sleeping Beauty)
  • Peter Pan
  • Pinocchio
  • The Little Mermaid (Universal is still working on an HCA-based version too, though it is plagued by issues)
  • Dumbo
  • The Sword in the Stone
  • Mulan
  • Winnie the Pooh
  • Tink (Tinkerbell - note: Fox is also working on a Tinkerbell movie, possibly more tenn/adult oriented)
  • Snow White-Rose Red
  • Prince Charming (Cinderella)
  • A Wrinkle In Time
  • Mary Poppins II
  • Jungle Cruise
  • The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
  • The Jungle Book II
  • Night on Bald Mountain (Fantasia)

There are also 3 "Untitled Disney Fairy Tale" live action films (release dates scheduled as: 7/28/17, 4/6/18, 12/20/19)
and 2 "Untitled Disney Live Action" films in the works (release dates scheduled as: 8/3/18, 12/25/18).

Animation:
  • Moana
  • Frozen II
  • Coco (Dia  de los Muertos)
  • Giants (Jack and the Beanstalk)
Note: All these films are confirmed as being in various stages of production at the time of this post, September 30, 2016.

3 comments:

  1. I am SO looking forward to Cruella, Beauty & the Beast, Peter Pan, and Tinkerbell.

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  2. They also renewed the rights to Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain epic fantasy books which The Black Cauldron is based on. No one's quite sure what they're doing with them, though. People are assuming that they're going to try and start a movie series based on it, but that's just an assumption. And even if they were, the first film would just be in an early script form at this point. So, when we hear something concrete that may have to be added to the list.

    So many people are freaking out online that they're "remaking" and "reimagining" so many animated films but I'm taking it in stride with a considerable amount of curiosity as to what they'll do. The fact that they're doing it is a bit gutsy but also . . . kind of humble. Yeah, finding humility in this may seem strange. But if I were in charge of Disney and had that track record, I'd probably enshrine our past successes. I'd be like "these are masterpieces and should not be touched". But instead, they're like "We can tell this story a different way". Personally, I'm most looking forward to The Sword in the Stone because I think that one could be done better. They spent a whole movie stressing Arthur's education but by the end of it he still seemed like the same clueless kid as he did in the beginning.

    Do we have any clue what's coming after Beauty and the Beast? For a little while it seemed like we had some clue what was next going forward but it seems to have stopped with BatB.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, Disney did indeed renew the rights to Lloyd Alexander's works - the whole set this time, but at last report there's still no Producer, Director or Writer so they're not even in the "creative development" stage. I'm optimistic about the possibilities though, especially if they lean toward movies or a mini-series. TV series Disney don't seem to know how to manage well yet. And I'm REALLY hoping they do't just end up on OUAT...
      As far as the reboots, we really do seem to be having an 80s-90's family fantasy film renaissance, which I'm actually pretty happy about. Apart from the Harry Potter films, which got dark very quickly and weren't little-or-sensitive kid friendly after the third one, we haven't had many noteworthy ones until recently. The 80's-90's period gave us Princess Bride, Neverending Story, Legend, The Indian in the Cupboard, ET, Labyrinth.. so many I haven't begun to list but it was influential on that entire generation in a good way. When Harry Potter appeared those kids, who were now parents, were as involved as their kids in the books, which is partly why I think they exploded with popularity (apart from being very good, but there as so many "very good", if not excellent fantasy and fairy tale-based books which barely got noticed). Society is clearly going through similar climes and crisis of issues - from environmental concerns (then it was the rainforests, now it's melting ice-caps) and financial crash and recovery to post-war recovery (in the 70's it was Vietnam, now it's Iraq) and equality in society (then it was gay acceptance and AIDS awareness, now it's gay and marriage equality as well as representation and rights of people of color). Our entertainment tends to reflect our responses to cultural issues and fantasy and fairy tales are very useful and healing tools to process issues by, not to mention help ground ideas and values that have become muddy or grayed. Although they are escapist too, which is part of the healing, overall eras like this help people get back on their feet and find hope again. Personally, I believe if we kept fairy and folk tales in better circulation we'd be less likely to have these waves of intense output, but I'm not complaining about this one either. I read somewhere that Guillermo del Toro doesn't like the term "eye candy" when it comes to well done and resonant fantasy effects, but instead calls them "eye protein". I have to agree in general, because certain images touch people personally and stay with them, informing their development, whether their children or adults. This sort of intense focus by real creatives across the board in collaborative mediums (film bing the obvious one here), does tend to generate magic of its own. I think it's about time we had some magic again! (And I'm relieved we're fially done with the Twilight era - yikes.)
      Re what's coming next, sources tell me it depends a lot on how things develop with various productions, as well as how consumers/audiences "talk" with their money. Lion King got greenlit and put on the fast track as a direct result of Jungle Book's worldwide success, even though it's been quietly in the works as a possibility for a while now. Disney has marked numerous release slots with "live action fairy tale film", with no indication of what will go where, even in the relatively near future, so it depends on the confidence of executives as well as public enthusiasm (ie potential money makers). You can see a list of marked-but-blank slots here, though I think the Lion King date has moved up a bit this week: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Walt_Disney_Pictures_films#Future_releases

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