The last time they had rights to the Chronicles of Prydain series, they gave us The Black Cauldron.
The Black Cauldron certainly has its fans, though many view it as a dark spot in Disney’s back catalog.
But that’s not stopping the studio from acquiring film rights to the story and planning another adaptation of Lloyd Alexander’s series, according to Variety. According to the report, it’s in early development stages.
Sam Dickerman is spearheading the project for Disney, though no producers, directors, or writers have been attached just yet. It doesn’t appear as though they’ve announced whether this will be a live-action adaptation or an animated one, but note that when Dickerman first joined Disney as Executive Vice President, Production, it was for development and production of live-action films.
The Chronicles of Prydain is a five book series which includes the titles The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King. They’re based on Welsh mythology and star Princess Eilonwy, a bard named Fflewddur Fflam and a creature named Gurgi.
The animated film tackled the first two books for their Black Cauldron adaptation in 1985, and by doing so they dropped and changed a lot of plot points for the beloved series. Hopefully this time around they’ll do a better job of staying true to the books.
And there’s a good chance they will. As adaptations of popular series become more commonplace, it sounds like studios have learned that staying as true to the book as possible is what will keep moviegoers in their seats.