‘Robin Hood’ Live-Action Remake Coming to Disney+

Disney is working on a remake of its 1973 adaptation of Robin Hood, which has become a cult classic in its own right. The new movie, which will again tell the classic medieval tale of a hero who takes from the rich and gives to the poor with anthropomorphic animals, will be directed by Blindspotting filmmaker Carlos Lopez Estrada. Like the recent Lady and the Tramp remake, this one is planned to go straight to Disney+.

Robin Hood will be written by Kari Granlund, who also wrote the Lady and the Tramp remake, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Justin Springer, who produced Tim Burton’s Dumbo remake and Tron Legacy for Disney, will produce the new movie. Estrada and Granlund were signed to the project before Hollywood was put on lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic. Robin Hood is in the very early stages of development.

Granlund also co-wrote Godmothered, a new Disney+ film starring Jillian Bell and Isla Fisher. It is now in post-production and is being directed by Sharon Maguire, who helmed Bridget Jones’s Diary and its 2016 sequel Bridget Jones’s Baby. The new film centers on an unskilled fairy godmother who sets to probe her worth by dinging a young girl who needs her help.

Estrada scored his breakthrough with Blindspotting, a 2018 crime dramedy starring and written by Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs about two friends in Oakland. His second film, Summertime, is an ensemble dramedy about young Los Angeles residents. It played at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The filmmaker also directed Billie Eilish’s “When The Party’s Over” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Now That I Found You” music videos. Last year, he helmed an episode of FX’s Legion.

Robin Hood was released in 1973, during a difficult decade for the Walt Disney Studio. It was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and features an incredible voice cast, including Peter Ustinov as Prine John, singer Roger Miller as the rooster narrating the film, Phil Harris as Little John and comedian Terry-Thomas as Sir Hiss. The film includes the Oscar-nominated song “Love” and the popular “Oo-De-Lally.” Although Robin Hood was not critically well-received when it was released, the film has gone on to become a favorite among Disney fans.

Since the enormous success of Jon Favreau’s 2016 adaptation of The Jungle Book, Disney has been more open to remaking the past animated hits that heavily feature animal characters. While The Jungle Book at least featured a human actor playing Mowgli, Favreu’s follow-up, The Lion King, featured a full cast of only realistic, CGI animals. Even though The Lion King was met with mixed critical response, it grossed $1.6 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time.