Sarah Polley — who won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for her feature film earlier this year Women talk — is in talks to direct the live action Bambi movie for disney, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The project is still in development, but should it happen, it would join Disney’s lucrative classic animation to live-action selection, the most recent of which was The little Mermaid which has made over $400 million at the box office to date.
The Bambi project was first reported in 2020 with Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel, Tomb Raider) and Lindsey Beer (Chaos walking) set to write the screenplay and depth of field, the production banner run by Chris and Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano, on board to produce. It is unclear whether this team still exists. (Depth of Field worked with the studio on Robert Zemeckis’ take on another classic animation, Pinocchio.)
The original film, released in 1942, told the story of a fawn named Bambi as he learns his place in the woods. With his two best friends, a rabbit named Thumper and a skunk named Flower, Bambi matures as he faces the joys and sorrows (see: traumatizing loss of a parent) of growing up. The film is considered one of the cornerstones of Disney’s legacy.
The Bambi live action movie would be more akin to The lionking And Jungle Book, featuring CGI-generated animals voiced by stars, unlike entries like Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beastthat the actors have as a physical presence in the film.
Polley worked as a child actress before transitioning to filmmaking, with a career that included award-winning doc Stories we tell and narrative dramas Take this waltz And Away from her. She is known by WME, Canada’s GGA, Circle of Confusion and Jackoway Austen.
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