Disney Hired A ‘Game Of Thrones’ Writer To Rewrite Guy Ritchie’s ‘Aladdin,’ Because Of Course
Guy Ritchie’s adaptation ofAladdinis trying to stay one jump ahead of the original animated classic.
Now that the production has cast its two leads of color after a comprehensive andtroubled search, Disney’s next live-action project is turning its eyes to its script. To rewrite the screenplay, Disney has hired formerGame of ThronesscreenwriterVanessa Taylor.
Taylor has been hired by Disney to rewrite the original script byJohn August(Go, Big Fish) and Ritchie, according toThe Tracking Board.
Taylor is known for writing three episodes of the HBO series in season 2 and 3: “Garden of Bones,” “The Old Gods and the New,” and, “Dark Wings, Dark Words.” On the film side, she’s also co-written the screenplay forDivergentas well asGuillermo del Toro’supcoming dark fantasy,The Shape of Water.
The Tracking Board describes the direction that theAladdinlive-action will be taking as a mixture of the animated classic’s story, as well as the original folktale that was first told in the epicArabic story collectionOne Thousand and One Nights— akin to what we learnedat the D23 Expoa few weeks ago.
“Disney’s live-actionAladdindraws inspiration from both the 1992 animated classic as well as the folktales ofThe Thousand and One Nights. Like the animated version, Ritchie’s Agrabah will be a vibrant, cosmopolitan city inspired by locations and cultures from the Middle East to India and China.”
Whether Taylor will be altering the latest draft of the script to be different than that approach, or whether she is actually sprucing up the script to be more in line with that description is unknown.
I’ll admit I balked a bit when I sawGame of ThronesandAladdinin the same line. I dislike Hollywood’s obsession with aping the brand of epic grittiness thatGame of Throneshas made popular, and it seems incongruous to pair that vision with the family-friendlyAladdin. But it’s also Guy Ritchie, a director known for making films with stylized bursts of violence, so what could I expect? But Taylor’s work with del Toro’sThe Shape of the Waterencouraged me, and proves that she has more range. PerhapsAladdinwill be more mature and violent than the other Disney live-action adaptations, but it could provide a refreshing departure from the animated films that theBeauty and the BeastandJungle Bookseem so eager to stick by.
Aladdinhas castMena Massoud(Jack Ryan) andNaomi Scott(Power Rangers) as Aladdin and Jasmine, andWill Smithas the Genie. The production will presumably look to cast the villainous Jafar and Iago next. Ritchie is producing the film withDan LinwhileJonathan Eirichis executive producing.Marc Platt(La La Land) andChris Montan(Frozen) are both consulting on the movie.Aladdinis scheduled to begin production in London next month.
