Screenwriter and director Guy Ritchie will team up with the Walt Disney Company to oversee a live action adaptation of the 1997 animated film Hercules according to a report in Deadline. Ritchie's live action adaptation of Disney's Aladdin previously broke the billion dollar gross mark. No word yet on if the new film will include Alan Menken and David Zippel's songs from the animated original.
The film will be produced by Avengers: Engame directors Joe and Anthony Russo's AGBO. A first draft of the script has been written by Dave Callaham, a veteran screenwriter who previously worked on Wonder Woman 1984, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Zombieland: Double Tap.
A live stage adaptation of the animated film is also in the works, as New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse prepares to present an expanded version of the 2019 Public Theater premiere adaptation as directed by Lear deBessonet. Hercules is the latest in a string of high-profile Disney Theatricals productions to find a home at the Playhouse. Newsies made its world premiere at the New Jersey theatre in 2011 with a production that became a surprise hit and transferred to a successful run on Broadway in 2012. Paper Mill also co-presented the U.S. premiere of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 2015 with La Jolla Playhouse, though this production did not make the jump to the Main Stem. Broadway aspirations for Hercules remain unclear at this time.
