How far back will Disney go to find its next animated film to remake? Not that far — just seven years.
Disney has announced a live-action remake of its 2016 animated movie Moana is in the works. The news was confirmed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who voiced Maui in the original movie and is involved in the reimagining. Auli'i Cravalho, the original voice of Moana, is producing.
Johnson said it's "still very early in the process" and that there's "so much more work to be done" on the movie. But he tweeted that he's "honored" to partner with Disney "to tell our story thru the realm of music & dance, which at the core is who we are as Polynesian people."
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Moana will be the latest in a series of live-action remakes of Disney's animated films, but it will be by far the most recent. The studio has never before released a live-action reimagining of any of its movies from the 21st century, though a live-action version of 2002's Lilo & Stitch is also in the works. The original animated version of Moana grossed $682 million worldwide and was nominated for two Oscars.
For the most part, Disney's live-action remakes have been hugely successful at the box office, with the new versions of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Aladdin all grossing over $1 billion worldwide. Some of the studio's other upcoming live-action remakes include this year's Peter Pan & Wendy and The Little Mermaid and next year's Snow White, and Hercules, The Aristocats, and Bambi are among the other movies being translated into live-action.
But the Moana remake could open the door to more reimaginings of modern Disney films, possibly including Frozen. Do you want to build a live-action snowman?
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