Disney's live-action adaptations of its animated classics have been undeniably hit-or-miss, with some very good efforts (The Lion King and Cinderella, for example), and a few bad ones (this past September's Pinocchio instantly springs to mind, as does the Maleficent sequel).
There's a lot of excitement for Hercules, however, especially with Aladdin director Guy Ritchie at the helm and Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo producing. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings writer, David Callaham, has been tapped to write the script, and is thought to be hard at work on that.
Talking to Variety (via SFFGazette.com), Joe says that fans of the 1997 fantasy musical can expect a movie that's "a little bit more experimental in tone, a little bit more experimental in execution."
"I think they’re excited to see what we can all bring to it in a way that isn’t just a reinterpretation of the animated film," he added, noting that, "Guy is perfect for it because he has penchant for experimentation."
Before getting too concerned about these comments, it's worth pointing out that the animated Hercules was similarly experimental. After all, it featured a phenomenal quintet of Black women serving as a Greek chorus, and those musical aspects are something Russo now hopes to reimagine for a modern audience used to scrolling on TikTok.
"There are questions about how you translate it as a musical," the filmmaker says. "Audiences today have been trained by TikTok, right? What is their expectation of what that musical looks like and feels like? That can be a lot of fun and help us push the boundaries a little bit on how you execute a modern musical."
We're intrigued to see what he means by that, and something tells us this take on Hercules will be nothing if not unique. Given how recent interpretations of that mythological character's story have been handled, something new is needed, and it sounds like that's exactly the plan with this live-action movie.
Hercules doesn't currently have a release date, but we'll keep you updated on SFFGazette.com and Toonado.com.