SALT LAKE CITY — Tom Hooper (“Les Miserables”), Bill Condon (“Beauty and the Beast”) and Rob Marshall (“Mary Poppins Returns”) may come to mind when thinking about directors behind remakes of classic musicals and animated Disney movies, but action director Guy Richie might be a stretch.
Regardless, the “Sherlock Holmes” director oversaw Disney’s live-action remake of “Aladdin.” Here’s how the match was made.
ComicBook.com reports “Aladdin” producer Dan Lin said that Richie was chosen for the job so he could make a movie his kids could enjoy. According to the producer, Ritchie’s family enjoys the original animated film and resulting Broadway musical.
“I discovered... his kids loved the ‘Aladdin’ original animated movie, as did his wife,” Lin said. “And that’s why I sent it to him because he was at the stage of his career which I was at many years ago, where I wanted to make movies for my kids.”
Lin also said Ritchie’s background directing music videos and indie movies about “street rats” qualified him to direct choreographed musical sequences — despite Richie’s desire to go against type and try new filming methods.
“He brings his methodology that he brought to an action movie to the musical genre. And I think he was just excited to try something new. He came in going, ‘Guys, this is not going to be your classic Guy Ritchie movie,’” Lin said. “It’s very much a Guy Ritchie movie, but it’s using a skill set that he may not have emphasized in previous movies.”
Betting on Ritchie seems to have paid off, though. Variety reports “Aladdin” has made over $1 billion worldwide so far, joining “Captain Marvel,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Spider-Man: Far From Home” in Disney’s high-earners club for 2019 so far.
Herb Scribner also reports for Deseret News that the film studio is weighing their options for a sequel. Lin said his team is planning on continuing Aladdin’s adventures, but won’t remake “The Return of Jafar,” which was a direct-to-video animated “Aladdin” sequel.
“We’re really looking at what’s been done before in the past and the home video, and there’s just more story to tell with the underlying materials. So without giving away too much, we are certainly exploring where we can go with this franchise,” Lin said.