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After the success of their live-action remakes in 2019, Disney is clearly ready to continue printing money by refreshing their classic library. In addition to the pending remakes of The Little Mermaid and The Sword in the Stone, it’s now been announced that the 1942 classic Bambi will be brought into the modern age. And to help in those efforts, Captain Marvel writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet has been hired to co-write the modern revamp on this woodland epic.
The story of the little deer prince of the woods, Bambi is one of Walt Disney’s most memorable films from their golden era of cinema. Though part of that infamy comes from the fact that for generations after its release, children were traumatized by the death of Bambi’s mother in the picture’s earlier moments. A tale of growing up and sticking with your friends, it’s definitely a legacy title that’s ripe for the remake treatment.
Co-writing this new, more modern spin on Bambi alongside Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who was also a credited writer on the recent Tomb Raider reboot starring Alicia Vikander, is writer Lindsay Beer. Beer’s latest projects include the Netflix original adaptation of Sierra Burgess Is A Loser, as well as the scribing duties on the still unreleased Tom Holland franchise starter Chaos Walking.
With THR’s announcement of Bambi being piped into the Disney writer’s room, it’s only a matter of time before the writers at SNL try to one up themselves, as they’d called the notion of a live-action reboot not too long ago. Albeit, their version happened to involve the Fast and Furious crew, and with the Fast 9 trailer concert/event set to happen next Friday, this surely can’t be a sign that these worlds have collided, right?
Of course it isn’t, but it’s still a fun coincidence to have these two events linked by comedy occurring around the same time. What will be more interesting is if Dworet and Beer’s reimagining of Bambi will focus solely on expanding the simple story of the 1942 original, or if their efforts will include any of the events from the direct to video sequel Bambi II, which saw the little prince reunited with his father.
Then there’s also the question of whether Bambi will be headed to the theatrical release side of the Mouse House, or if this project will be built and bred to be a Disney+ exclusive, much like last year’s highly rated Lady and The Tramp. It could be a good idea to play around with releasing the remakes of more classic films on the home streaming platform, while reserving theatrical release slots for projects like The Little Mermaid to fully cash in on their nostalgia.
We don’t know when, or if, that sort of a decision will be made, or when Bambi is aiming to be in production. So you’re going to want to keep it tuned to us here at CinemaBlend, as we’ll be breaking that news as it comes.
In the meantime, Disney’s next live-action remake, director Niki Caro’s Mulan, will be in theaters on March 27, 2020. Should you be curious to see what other classic cartoons are in the pipeline to be fleshed out in real life, head over to our guide on Upcoming Disney Live-Action Movies for further information.
And if the mention of this timeless classic has triggered some nostalgic longing to see the original Bambi and/or its video sequel, you can very easily revisit that beautiful film through a free 7-day trail of Disney+.
