Tim Burton to Direct Live-Action "Dumbo" for Disney | Playbill

News Tim Burton to Direct Live-Action "Dumbo" for Disney Tim Burton, the Hollywood auteur responsible for dark-themed film musicals “Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Sweeney Todd,” has been chosen by Disney to make a live-action version of its 1941 film classic Dumbo, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Hollywood Reporter.

The film will continue Disney’s campaign to translate selected animated features to a live format. Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” led to last year’s “Maleficent” (based on “Sleeping Beauty”) and the forthcoming “Cinderella,” opening this weekend, and now “Dumbo.” The story of a shy young circus elephant who has the power to fly by flapping his enormous ears, "Dumbo" was nominated for an Oscar for the lullaby “Baby Mine” and won the Oscar for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.

The new film reportedly will use a mix of CGI and live action to tell the story. Ehren Kruger has signed on to write the script. It will be interesting to see how the new film handles the two controversial points in the cartoon. One was its treatment of the crow characters, who come across as stereotypes of African-Americans. The other is the traumatic scene in which Dumbo is forcibly separated from his mother.

 
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