Smith on 'Aladdin': I Was Terrified!

Since 1992, Disney’s ambitious animation project "Aladdin" won the hearts of millions and became a highest-grossing picture later on, in addition to two Oscars and a future Broadway musical.

Now, following in the lucrative footsteps of "Beauty and the Beast" and others, the studio is taking another shot at "Aladdin," this time in live-action. The film, from director Guy Ritchie, opens nationwide Friday, AP reported.

The recreation of the magic of "Aladdin" had seen the participation of star Will Smith who agreed to play the Genie.

"It was not a no-brainer," Smith said. "I was really terrified at first. You know, you have to be careful with these types of films that mark people's childhoods."

According to AP, Smith and the filmmakers knew that remaking "Aladdin " would inevitably involve a delicate dance of paying homage to the original while also modernizing some aspects of the story, including casting ethnically appropriate leads, who could sing and dance and carry a large scale production, and giving a character like Princess Jasmine more agency.

They found Egyptian-born and Canada-raised actor Mena Massoud to play Aladdin and British actress Naomi Scott, who is of half South Asian descent, to play Jasmine.

In this film, she's fighting for equality and the opportunity to succeed her father as Sultan.

Menken was the bridge between past and present for the production, and said he had to be both the "keeper of the flame of the original" and "part of a new team."

"When you're working at Disney you have a lot of people keeping an eye, a very careful eye, on the legacy," Menken said. "So I am very protective."

"Aladdin" was shot on a massive soundstage outside of London, where the Agrabah set spanned the size of two football fields, and on a location in Jordan, including at Wadi Rum.

As the movie goes, a big focus is on the "Prince Ali" sequence, where Aladdin, with Genie's help, enters the city as they think royalty would, boasting of his great wealth, bravery and an assortment of animals including 75 golden camels, 53 peacocks and 95 white Persian monkeys.

250 dancers and 200 extras were employed to flesh out the world and commissioned a 30-foot high camel made of 37,000 flower heads for "Ali" to ride in on.

AP reported that with a run-time of over two hours, compared to the animated film's 90 minutes, there are also additional story elements and a new character in Jasmine's handmaiden (played by "Saturday Night Live" alum Nasim Pedrad). And it leans into the persity you'd expect from a story set in the Middle East, which was personally important to Massoud.

[caption id="attachment_52712" align="aligncenter" width="338"] Will Smith playing Genie at Aladdin[/caption]

"Coming from the Middle East and Egypt we're just really ecstatic any time we see positive representation coming from Hollywood," Massoud said. "This is certainly positive representation."