Originally an animated flick, Disney will be turning the story into a live action movie, much like the studio has already done quite successfully with Alice in Wonderland (through Alice Through the Looking Glass), Maleficent (starring Angelina Jolie), and Cinderella. Brigham Taylor will serve as producer.
Related: Spider-Man reboot snags Vacation screenwriting team
The original movie was released on Christmas Day in 1963 and followed the story of lead character Arthur, an orphan who becomes king when, as the name implies, he removes a sword from a stone. It has a special place in the studio’s heart, as it was the last film released before the death of Walt Disney. The story is based loosely on the novel of the same name by T.H. White, published in 1938, as the first book in the The Once and Future King series.
Cogman’s extensive experience with Game of Thrones will certainly prove useful in penning a script for such a fantasy movie. That said, we can expect far less gore and gratuitous sex in this flick than we might see in an episode of the HBO show. This is Disney, after all, not to mention the reimagining of an animated movie.
And clearly he’s already excited about the project, having Tweeted out a photo of himself at Disneyland conducting “research.”
Research. pic.twitter.com/jpEja5gTdz
— Bryan Cogman (@b_cogman) July 20, 2015
In addition to this movie, Disney is also working on live action versions of a number of other popular animated stories, including Beauty and the Beast, which will star Emma Watson; The Jungle Book, which will be directed by Jon Favreau and feature the voices of Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong, and Bill Murray; Tinker Bell, starring Reese Witherspoon, and a number of others.
In addition to screenwriting a number of Game of Thrones episodes, Cogman also wrote the book Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones, and has been tapped to write the film version of Magic: The Gathering.
