Disney Lets Out The News Of A Hybrid 'Aristocats' Remake To Distract From The Beginning of Layoffs
Everybody wants to see the cat.
Remember how in February, Disney announced during its year-end company earnings call they’d be laying off about 7,000 employees? Well, boss Bob Iger confirmed it would be starting this week, in the first of three rounds.
The memo describing it declares that the second round is set to be the deepest. This first round is occurring shortly before the company’s annual shareholder meeting happening next week on April 3. Iger has said these layoffs are a major part of achieving $5.5 billion in cost savings. Word is that all three divisions – Parks, Experiences and Products; Entertainment; and ESPN will be affected. In particular, the Entertainment division will likely see major cuts on the business and content sides at Hulu, ABC Signature, and 20th Television. Oh yeah and they still won’t let the animation studio unionize
But hey, there’s no need to worry about all that when there are KITTIES! Sources tell Deadline that Disney is working on a live-action/hybrid reimaging of The Aristocats. It’s set to be directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. Yes that Questlove, founding member of drummer and frontman for The Roots, the Grammy-winning Philadelphia hip-hop band. Thompson’s directorial debut was the highly-accoladed 2021 documentary Summer of Soul, whose wins began with the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and culminated with the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Thompson also is executive producing and overseeing music for the film, the original featuring such songs as “Everybody Wants to Be a Cat” and “She Never Felt Alone”. whose script is by Will Gluck and Keith Bunin. Bandmate Tarik Trotter, manager Shawn Gee and Zarah Zohlman will EP on behalf of Two One Five Entertainment.
The original 1970 animated film follows a family of Parisian felines set to inherit a fortune from their owner. The owner’s jealous butler kidnaps them, leaving them in the country, so they team up with a “smooth talking” tomcat to try to make it back home. Its live action reimagining is the latest to be reported in a line of live-action or hybrid remakes of films in Disney’s animated canon, which was spurred by the success of 2010’s Alice in Wonderland and has been yearly since 2014’s Maleficent. This year’s continuance includes Peter Pan and Wendy and The Little Mermaid.
