Last June it was reported that Aladdin director Guy Ritchie was going to be directing the live-action Hercules movie produced by the Russ Brothers; and while we haven’t gotten any significant updates on the film recently, it does look like production has caught a snag.
As it turns out, insiders Daniel RPK and The DisInsider (via @OneTakeNews) have confirmed that Ritchie has exited the Hercules movie due to scheduling conflicts. We don’t know how far they’ve gotten into the development process, but as of now, it doesn’t seem like Disney has found anyone to replace him yet.
It’s also worth noting that this news comes off the heel of the first look at Ritchie’s Netflix series The Gentlemen which is based on a film of the same name. Check this out:
We don’t know how far into development the Hercules movie is yet, but the Russos have commented about the film not being a literal translation of the original animated movie. There was a quote going around that the film would try and mimic the TikTok generation of celebrities—which you can imagine just angered a bunch of millennials online.
Looking back at Hercules though, it was pretty unique in that it was a kind of “Zero to Hero” story with a lot of modern elements being translated into their cartoon ‘ancient greek’ versions like action figures, crazy fans, and sports drinks; kind of like gags from The Flintstones only in another era.
Though I think animation enhances those gags, I think it’s possible to make a new version with live-action—especially since we’re in a completely new Disney era from the 90s when the original came out. I mean, even a live-action Flintstones was able to work.
No release date has been announced for the live-action Hercules.
