Digging further into the barrel of stories that were great the first time and oh god why are you touching them again just leave them be, comes word that Disney are continuing their trend of “enhancing” old classics for the modern day, with the development of a live action version of Dumbo officially in the works.
Following in the footsteps of recent remakes Alice In Wonderland and Maleficent – and the soon-to-come Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and The Jungle Book – the new version of Dumbo is supposedly going to be something more of a revisionist adaptation of the original story, rather than an out-and-out remake; it’s hard to see how, for example, a child elephant drinking spiked water that sparks a hallucinogenic musical sequence involving floating pink elephants makes its way into a children’s film in 2014. Though stranger things have certainly happened.
Screenwriter Ehren Kruger has been tapped to pen the script for the remake. In recent years much of his work output has been tied up in the Transformers franchise, but before then his other credits include The Brothers Grimm, Reindeer Games, and the American adaptations of The Ring.
No word yet on if the film will also feature CGI vaguely racist jive-talking crows.
