Yes, Disney is working on a live-actionHerculesremake. But the big news here is who’s producing it: BrothersJoeandAnthony Russo. You know, the guys behind theCaptain Americasequels andAvengers: Infinity WarandEndgame.
The news comes courtesy ofTHR, which reports that Disney is in the early stage of developing aHerculeslive-action remake with the Russo Brothers producing through their AGBO banner. The two are not expected to direct. They’ve hiredDavid Callahamto start working on the script, and he’s a guy who know his way around an action set piece. Callaham’s recent credits includeWonder Woman 1984and Marvel’s upcomingShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. He’s also working on the nextSpider-Manmovie and worked on the script for the sequelZombieland: Double Tap.
It’s too early to say what kind of approach Disney’s live-actionHerculeswill take. The animated film was released in 1998, towards the tail end of Disney’s 90s renaissance that saw an uptick after leaning into a Broadway musical style. That served the live-action adaptation ofBeauty and the Beastwell, but the live-actionAladdinpulled back on the songs a little bit while the “live-action”The Lion Kingattempted to blend photorealism with a few select songs. All three, however, were massive box office hits.
It’s hard to imagine the Russo Brothers embracing the more colorful and musical aspects of the 1998 film, which I feel is somewhat underrated (“Go the Distance” is tremendously emotional and “I Won’t Say I’m in Love” slaps). The brothers are coming off of producing the extremely violent Netflix action movieExtractionand recently wrapped production on their directorial follow-up toEndgame, a gritty crime drama calledCherrystarringTom Holland.
But absolutely no details on theHerculeslive-action remake hasn’t stopped fan-casting, fromAriana GrandetoAmber Riley. Of course that’s assuming the film goes the musical route, which it may not. Although Disney will likely want to distinguish this take on the Hercules legend from the most recent live-action takes, which starredDwayne JohnsonandKellan Lutz, were very gritty, and were very bad.
Up next for Disney is a live-action adaptation ofThe Little Mermaid, which was about to start production when the coronavirus shut everything down.
