January 17, 2019
In its latest move in a seemingly never-ending quest to remake every one of its classics, Disney announced this week it would adapt Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" into a live-action musical.
Tony-award winning playwright David Henry Hwang ("M. Butterfly," "Tarzan," "Chinglish") will pen the movie's script and Disney wonderboy Alan Menken and Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz will write the music. Josh Gad ("Beauty and the Beast") will join Mandeville to produce.
According to Deadline, the film will pull from Disney's animated film and Hugo's original writing, and Zendaya, Charlie Hunnam, and Lin-Manuel Miranda are among the stars in the cast.
Okay okay here's my live action HUNCHBACK cast:
— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) January 16, 2019
Ben Mendelsohn — Frollo (than you @claykeller)
Zendaya — Esmerelda
Ben Platt — Quasimodo
Charlie Hunnam — Phoebus
Kenneth Branagh — the nice archdeacon from the beginning
Lin-Manuel Miranda — Clopin
Out there...among the millers and the weavers and their wives??? https://t.co/pJ2aTHBnIQ
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 16, 2019
The remake is actually poised to be in competition with Netflix ... again.
Netflix is producing its own adaptation with Idris Elba slated to star as hunchback Quasimodo. He'll also direct, produce, and create music for the retelling, according to Variety.
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