According to Deadline, Walt Disney Pictures has just picked up a new script from a promising writer named Larry Brenner. Back in 2011, he landed on the Black List, a collection of Hollywood’s hottest unproduced scripts, and since then he’s been attached to films being set up at Universal and Sony. Now, he can add the House of Mouse to his list of studios invested in his talent.
But what is this revolutionary idea that’s gotten Disney excited over Brenner? The reports say that the Final Draft Big Break finalist pitched “an action/adventure story about the journey of the mythical princess who must enter the complex and dangerous Labyrinth to save her father”.
Hold on. That sounds really familiar… Oh yeah!
Jim Henson put out a film in 1986 that sounds a whole lot like that! Except Henson’s had David Bowie in it. They say that those films have no relation to one another, but in this culture of remakes and reboots, I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually did evolve into a redo of the extremely 80’s Henson collaboration with George Lucas. Also, Disney owns the rights to some Henson properties, so maybe they trying to bring it back and capitalize on the cult status of the original.
Or the two films just so happen to share some similarities and are completely different. That’s also a possibility.
Either way, Brenner is developing the project alongside Jim Whitaker, who’s known for producing such films as ‘American Gangster’, ‘8 Mile’, and ‘Robin Hood’. Meanwhile, that film that the writer has at Universal titled ‘Bethlehem’, which follows a group of survivors who makes a deal with a vampire in exchange for protection during a zombie apocalypse, is currently in development.
What do you think about Disney’s latest acquisition from Larry Brenner, ‘Labyrinth’? How do you think it will compare to the cult classic Jim Henson film with the same name? And how would you feel if someone somewhere decided to remake the 1986 classic?
