A new live-action Robin Hood remake is coming to Disney Plus.
A new Robin Hood remake is in the works over at Disney Plus, using live action.
While the 2019 Lady and the Tramp was a success in our opinion, there were also less-than-successful live-action versions of The Lion King and Dumbo, so this may not work.
This news was broken over the weekend by The Hollywood Reporter, and picked up elsewhere shortly afterward.
The original Disney Robin Hood came out in 1973 as anthropomorphic cartoon very similar in art style to The Jungle Book, starring Pat Buttram (Green Acres, The Aristocats) as the Sheriff of Nottingham, with country music singer/songwriter Roger Miller as the narrator, a rooster ministrel.
According to THR, screenwriter Kari Granlund (2019 Lady and the Tramp) will write the script, with Blindspotting‘s Carlos Lopez Estrada directing. A producer of the live-action Dumbo, Justin Springer, is also attached.
English stage actor Brian Bedford, who also starred in the racing movie Grand Prix with James Garner, voiced the titular fox, with Little John being voiced by Phil Harris, known for his iconic roles as Baloo in The Jungle Book and Thomas O’Malley in The Aristocats.
According to Wikipedia, there have been at least 46 movies about Robin Hood made previously, everything from parodies by Mel Brooks and VeggieTales to serious dramas starring Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe.
Though the legends have been around in various forms since the Middle Ages, probably the most familiar comprehensive retelling of the Robin Hood legends are probably children author/illustrator Howard Pyle’s collection The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, which was published in 1883.
The Disney Robin Hood is a solid though largely-forgotten retelling that works pretty well, and the heavy use of canine animals in foxes and wolves (the Sheriff) makes it even better in our opinion.
Another planned Disney Plus canine-centric show is a Turner and Hooch TV series starring Josh Peck (Drake and Josh) and Lyndsy Fonseca (How I Met Your Mother, Agent Carter), a remake of the strange but worthwhile Tom Hanks classic.
While a launch date hasn’t been announced, given the current coronavirus pandemic, it seems like sometime in 2022 would be the earliest the Robin Hood remake would drop.