Another live-action remake is in the works at Disney: Night on Bald Mountain is based on a particularly memorable sequence from Fantasia!
Well… we doubt anyone had this Disney remake on their live-action bingo ballot.
Disney is riding on a live-action wave right now, revealing one iconic remake after another: first Cinderella, then The Jungle Book, followed by Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Pinocchio, and more.
Related: Disney developing live-action Winnie The Pooh
Its most recent live-action announcement is somewhat more imaginative, however.
Walt Disney Studio’s third animated feature film Fantasia (1940) consisted of eight animated sequences set to classical music. One of these was “Night on Bald Mountain,” which showed a dark, demonic creature which raised the spirits of the dead.
The eerie montage showed the spirits dancing in tune to the music (a Modest Mussorgsky arrangement by Leopold Stokowski), in front of a night sky backdrop. When the sun rose, the spirits faded, and the dance ended:
Now, Disney is adapting the iconic 11-minute sequence into a live-action feature film.
Writing partners Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (Dracula Untold) will write the script for the movie, which does not yet have a release date. They’ll likely center the story on the winged creature and build him up as either a villain or a hero, and introduce a cast of relatable human characters who somehow cross paths with him.
Related: Eight actresses who could get down to business in Disney’s live-action Mulan
Notably, the writers only have three credits on IMDb, and they’re all either horror or mystery movies. It seems like Night on Bald Mountain will be one of Disney’s darker live-action re-imaginings.
The Hollywood Reporter speculates that Night on Bald Mountain will be similar to the 2014 movie Maleficent, which starred Angelina Jolie as the misunderstood Sleeping Beauty villain.