Say what you want about Disney’s live-action remakes, but they’ve been able to attract some great filmmakers to helm them, including David Lowery, Jon Favreau, Kenneth Branagh, and Barry Jenkins who recently joined a prequel to The Lion King. And now you can add Sarah Polley to that list, hot off her Academy Award win for Women Talking.
Deadline reports that Polley is in talks to direct Disney’s live-action musical adaptation of Bambi. No, this isn’t like a horror movie version where the deer gets revenge (that’s being done), this is a remake of the classic 1942 animated movie.
You may recall that Disney put this project into motion in 2020 when they hired Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel, Tomb Raider) and Lindsey Beer (Chaos Walking) to write the screenplay.
An unusual move? Maybe, but is it any different than David Lowery on Pete’s Dragon? Or Greta Gerwig on Barbie and Disney’s live-action Snow White? It’s a good chance for Polley to expand her directorial horizons, tackling a major studio project when her previous films, including Away from Her, Take this Waltz, and Stories We Tell, all were on the small (but tremendous) side.
