"Bambi" Live-Action Movie in Works at Disney

A live-action remake of the classic "Bambi" is in very early development at Disney.

Oscar-winning writer and director of Women Talking Sarah Polley is in talks to helm the remake. Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster wrote the most recent draft of the script, and Chris and Paul Weitz’s Depth of Field will produce. 

Multiple sources revealed that the project is a musical that will feature music from six-time Grammy-winning country star Kacey Musgraves.

The studio first signaled its intention to adapt "Bambi" for live-action in early 2020, bringing Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Lindsey Beer aboard as writers and Depth of Field to produce in January of that year. No word yet on when the project might be put in motion, given unpredictable strike conditions. 

The movie is of course the coming-of-age story of Bambi, the young deer struck by tragedy who counts among his woodland pals — the rabbit Thumper and a skunk named Flower.

An adaptation of Felix Salten’s 1923 novel "Bambi, a Life in the Woods", released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1942, the original Bambi was just the fifth animated movie to emerge from Disney. 

The movie was helmed by David Hand and assorted sequence directors grossed over $267M worldwide, landed Academy Award nominations for Best Sound, Song and Original Music Score, and has endured as a classic over the years, assuredly continuing to traumatize young viewers with its famous depiction of the death of Bambi’s mother to this day.

In December 2011, the movie entered into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, given its cultural, historic, and aesthetic significance.

The remaining will be the latest in a long line of live-action movies to adapt Disney’s classic animated movies.

The most recent installment in this chain, which has done huge business for the studio, is the Rob Marshall-helmed "The Little Mermaid", which has grossed over $414M since bowing in theaters on May 26th.