We all know that Disney's live action version of Beauty and the Beast is to come out in 2017, and fans everywhere are eager with anticipation. But what else are we to expect to come out of Disney's magical movie studios? Do you want to know? Well, then, you've came to the right place.
After the success of Maleficent, the next villain led live action film will star only the most fabulous villain out there, Cruella De Vil. Now the 101 Dalmation film has had a remake, arguably one of the first live action remakes disney made. But the focus was on the puppies, and not quite on the fashionable villian. All we know at this point is that Emma Stone may play our villaness, and the movie is set to film in late 2016.
Cruella, unfortunately, won't have the limelight all to herself. In mid-April Disney announced that it will be beginning production on a second Maleficent movie. Angelina Jolie will return to the role of Maleficient, considering the first movie was her highest grossing one.
Disney seems to be ready to give out plenty of sequels as well. Maleficent 2 is still under wraps, andThe Jungle Book 2 is also well on it's way to the big screen .The animated version of the movie features Mowgli leaving the village and his friends following him into the Jungle. I won't spoil the first one, but I will say that the original author, Rudyard Kipling, did write several books on Mowgli's adventures, so it's still unclear where the source material for this movie will come from.
The last sequel to be released was Alice: Through the Looking Glass directed by none other than Tim Burton, who will go on to direct Dumbo. We should expect a mix of cgi, live action, and all the typical darkness that Tim Burton adds into his films, while adding a unique family story to parallel Dumbo's tail.
Dumbo originally premiered in 1941, making it one of the older disney animations. But a lesser known animation/live action film that Disney released was Pete's Dragon (1977), which will have it's own live action remake. No one saw this remake coming, since not too many knew about the movie in the first place.
Some more popular, and newer, remakes to soon hit the screen will excite the fans of the poc disney characters, like Mulan, who will be played by Scarlet Johanson. This is probably the most controversial casting that Disney could have put out. Already there has been various pushes to introduce more Asain, Hispanic, Black, MIddle Eastern characters in movies. Scarlett Johanson is a wonderful American actress who could definitely play the strong-willed and brave Mulan beautifully. But Mulan is meant to be a beautiful Chinese woman while Johanson's heritage is Danish. To make Mulan not Chinese is like making an apple blue because blue is a "better color". Disney argued
“We are aware that casting Scarlett may not agree with everyone’s opinion on what Mulan should be, but we find that we’re going to appeal to a much wider audience with Scarlett and create a much more financially viable production than in a scenario where we had hired some Chinese actress.”
Fans have made a petition about the casting, backed up by the original voice actress Ming-Na Wen who threw her hat into the ring to act as Mulan. THe movie was originally set to be released in June 2016, but with all the controversy, it seems that we can expect this movie next year, in 2017.
Alladin will also have a live action movie, but it will infact be a prequel explaining how the beloved Genie became trapped in his lamp. Unfortantely, the late great Robin WIlliams can not play his part as the genie he created, so to fill the role, Tony award winner James Inglehart. Whether or not this Genie is teh same genie is unknown, but we'll jsut have to go watch and know for sure.
Other titles to look for include Pinnochio, Prince Charming, Tinkerbell, and Rose Red.
Last thing I'll tell you is that Rose Red is the Snow White remake you never saw coming.
