Disney is going full speed ahead with their assault on your childhood senses. They have been digging in their vast animated library and engaged in a campaign to bring their classic animated properties to life in full post-modern glory. The trend found its footing when Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland managed to make over one billion dollars at the worldwide box-office, despite most agreeing that it was not that good. That opened the floodgates and with the success of Maleficent and Cinderella, the train is moving full-speed ahead with adaptations of The Jungle Book, Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast and more coming in the next few years.
Disney is now looking to dust off their classic Aladdin. Maybe one of the more trickier properties to pull off, particularly due to one of the most legendary Disney performances ever, by the late Robin Williams. So instead of doing a remake right off the bat, they have a different approach in mind according to THR.
The new project would focus on the realm of the Genies and reveal how Aladdin’s Genie ended up enslaved in the lamp.
Although Genies is only in the early stages of development, the long-term plan is to have the project lead into an Aladdin live-action movie.
This approach does make a lot of sense. By going with a prequel, audiences will be able to adjust to the personality of the new genie, presumably through an origin story. If the movie is a hit and they go ahead with the sequel, which would essentially be an Aladdin remake, fans would have grown accustomed and attached to the new genie. This would hopefully limit comparisons to Williams’ performance and allow the new interpretation room to breathe on its own.
They can go many directions with the origin story. It’s easy to imagine a tale of adventure with flying carpets and magical opponents, before the star gets trapped inside the lamp. Much less the movie will “focus on the realm of the Genies,” which sounds like a special effects ride through the world of the lamps. The script is being written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, whose most high profile projects were co-writing Friday the 13th and Freddy Vs Jason…what can possibly go wrong? It seems like an odd fit, perhaps their pitch is so original that Disney executives couldn’t resist giving the go ahead. With all that being said, things will go to another level once a director is formally announced. We will be sure to bring you the latest as this comes together.
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Source: Cinema Blend