Disney is continuing to crank out live-action versions of some of their animated classics. It has been announced that one of the next ones on deck is a live-action The Hunchback of Notre Dame and it has some truly creative talent behind the project.
Tony-winning M. Butterfly playwright David Henry Hwang has been set by Disney to write Hunchback, a live-action musical adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel. Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz are taking on music duties while Josh Gad is tapped with producing duties along with Mandeville. It has been reported that Gad could take on the lead character but Disney has stated no casting decisions have been made at this point.
The new film will pull from the 1996 animated film and the Hugo novel but not the stage production that Schwartz and Menken collaborated on in Europe. Mandeville head, David Hoberman, has been fixated on a live-action Hunchback for over 30 years going back to when he was Disney film president. An early attempt led to the animated film and another resulted in a limited TV series on ABC. Now it has come back around as a feature film, and while it is early and not on the Disney release calendar, Hunchback is said to be a big priority for Disney.
