It’s been 20 years since Disney (along with co-producer Tim Burton) animated the Roald Dahl classic, James and the Giant Peach. And in those two decades, the world has experience manifold technological development, enough to, say, make a giant flying peach and bug people look entirely natural in a live-action film.
Director Sam Mendes and writer Nick Hornby are in early talks with Disney about making the proposed film, as Entertainment Weekly reports. Mendes, who nabbed the Best Director Oscar for American Beauty and helmed the last two James Bond installments, would direct and develop the picture, with Hornby tackling screenplay duties. Hornby is best known for writing acclaimed novels Fever Pitch, About a Boy, and High Fidelity, as well as for his screenplays for Wild and Brooklyn, the latter of which got the writer an Oscar nod.
Nerdist has reached out for comment from Disney but had yet to hear back at the time of publication.
Another of Roald Dahl’s novels, The BFG, was adapted to film earlier this summer by Steven Spielberg. And this comes at a time when Disney is mining its animated canon for live-action fodder. We’ve already seen Maleficent, Cinderella and Jungle Book, and there are several more live-action films in the works. One based on The Little Mermaid with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Cruella with Emma Stone, Beauty And The Beast starring Emma Watson, and a Tim Burton-shepherded adaption of Dumbo.
That’s all to say that the time feels ripe for a good James and the Giant Peach reprisal. Purely from a narrative standpoint, Dahl’s story is gold, and with Mendes and Hornby at the helm, I feel safer than a destitute boy being flown over the arctic by seagulls in a giant peach filled with talking bug people. But, in all seriousness, I’m feeling very good about this one.
What are your thought of a Mendes/Hornby/Disney take on Roald Dahl’s tale? Let us know in the comments.
Image: Disney
