Disney Plans Live-Action ‘Winnie The Pooh’; Alex Ross Perry To Write
Clearly Disney isn’t going to rest until they’ve turned every single one of their animated properties into a live-action feature. Just days after they got the ball rolling on a live-actionMulan, the studio is also making plans for a live-action version ofWinnie the Pooh.
The real surprise here, though, is who’s behind it:Alex Ross Perry, writer and director of the caustic Sundance indieListen Up Philip. More on the live actionWinnie the Poohafter the jump.
Deadlinebroke the news. Perry is only set to write the live-actionWinnie the Poohfilm for the time being, and no director has been announced. The story will pick up with Christopher Robin, now all grown up. Something or other leads him back to his beloved Winnie the Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood.Winnie the Poohis by far the biggest project of Perry’s career so far.Listen Up Philipearned some good buzz, but scraped together just $200K at the box office. And that was huge for him — his film before that,The Color Wheel, made one-tenth that amount.Listen Up Philipwas basically the opposite of aWinnie the Poohmovie. It’s about a jerk who manages to alienate everyone around him and destroy every relationship he has, whereas the Winnie the Pooh movies tend to be all about love and friendship. But Perrydoes seem to love animals, so there’s that, I guess.
This isn’t the first time Disney has looked far off the beaten path for collaborators. Previously, they setAin’t Them Bodies Saintshelmer David Lowery as the unexpected pick to write and direct thePete’s Dragonremake. We’ve yet to see how that decision pans out, asPete’s Dragonisn’t due out until 2016. But if it means these movies will be a little more adult-friendly and a little more unique than the usual kiddie fare, we’re all for it.
Perry referenced Lowery’s deal with Disney this morning on Twitter as news of this film project broke:
