Disney to remake "Dumbo" in live-action with script by "Transformers" writer

I don't post practical jokes, and I sincerely wish this was a joke. But it isn't. Dumbo, the film Leonard Maltin called his favorite Disney film, is about to get a remake in live-action. And who's writing the screenplay? Why, none other than Ehren Kruger, the man responsible for the Transformers movies. Does anyone seriously expect this to be good?

MatthewA said:

I don't post practical jokes, and I sincerely wish this was a joke. But it isn't. Dumbo, the film Leonard Maltin called his favorite Disney film, is about to get a remake in live-action. And who's writing the screenplay? Why, none other than Ehren Kruger, the man responsible for the Transformers movies. Does anyone seriously expect this to be good?

Click to expand...

Awful idea.

Maybe they could make a film about this poor elephant instead.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/08/elephant-raju-weeps-gratitude-released-50-shackles-video-pictures_n_5567102.html

Spokesman Pooja Binepal said: “Raju has spent the past 50 years living a pitiful existence in chains 24 hours a day, an act of intolerable cruelty. The team were astounded to see tears roll down his face during the rescue. It was so incredibly emotional for all of us. We knew in our hearts he realised he was being freed.

yeah and lets have some tie-fighters flying around him as well.
disney has gone dumbo and dumber. They've now ruined my childhood film.

All they need to do is re-release the film into cinemas or say this month is dumbo month and anyone with VHS Beta Laserdisc bluray should play the film. Sorted and everyone is happy. Don't need a remake!!! disney are now becoming unimaginative. As disney, finally gone around the frigging pipe?

All of the people who went to see "Malificent" can take a bow, because their patronage of that film has opened the floodgate for live action "reimaginings" of classic animated films and characters. If that film had bombed like it deservedly should have, we wouldn't be reading about film travesties like this being greenlit.

Why is Disney on this "animation/live action remake" jag? I personally think it's ridiculous.

They have 630,000,000 reasons why they are going on a jag to dump all over their animation legacy. As long as these terrible live-action travesties make money, they will keep making them.

I hate to think what "Pink Elephants on Parade" will look like in live action! Assuming it is in the remade film.

classicmovieguy said:

Why is Disney on this "animation/live action remake" jag?

Click to expand...

The same reason all the other studios are. Movies are getting expensive to make and the studios are trying to minimize risk wherever possible.

Surely the success of "Frozen" should have given Disney new encouragement to continue the legacy started by Walt - not continually leeching from past glories with these half-baked remakes.

MatthewA said:

The same reason all the other studios are. Movies are getting expensive to make and the studios are trying to minimize risk wherever possible.

Click to expand...

How is making a terrible live-action film with a CGI flying elephant low risk, especially when a person can rent s film where the concept feels natural instead of ridiculous?

Edwin-S said:

How is making a terrible live-action film with a CGI flying elephant low risk, especially when a person can rent s film where the concept feels natural instead of ridiculous?

Click to expand...

Because they're banking on "brand" recognition and the current popularity of live-action/CGI hybrids.

andySu said:

They've now ruined my childhood film.

Click to expand...

Please help me understand why this is so? If this silly idea sucks, won't it make the original seem even that much better in comparison? If the new movie is actually decent, how does that "ruin" the original?

Look, I understand how people have strong emotional attachments to things from their childhood, but to vehemently assert that an announced future project has somehow irreversibly affected your affinity for something that's 74 years old, to me, seems a bit hyperbolic.

Oh, wait. This is the Internet. Never mind.

Jason Charlton said:

Please help me understand why this is so? If this silly idea sucks, won't it make the original seem even that much better in comparison? If the new movie is actually decent, how does that "ruin" the original?

Click to expand...

A remake doesn't matter to me if it's really good and brings something new to the table.

What bothers me is the lack of originality running throughout Hollywood at the moment where so many remakes and reboots get funded while original idea's get the boot, i think Pixar is one example, they used to make original CGI animated flicks but nowadays it seems to be just sequel after sequel to their past glories and the guy who runs Pixar also runs Disney, he also wants to make Disney's glorious animated classics into films that don't look anything like film, he hates film grain, that much is certain to me, i'm against what they are doing to their classics and i also wish they would make more original films instead of re-hashing past ones.

I mean take the story above about the elephant being rescued after fifty years in captivity and chains, can you imagine how good a film Disney could make out of that, you could make a great movie from that story and you have the heart warming ending but all Disney can do is come up with a live action version of Dumbo, it might end up being a good film but it's hardly original.

FoxyMulder said:

A remake doesn't matter to me if it's really good and brings something new to the table.

What bothers me is the lack of originality running throughout Hollywood at the moment...

Click to expand...

I'm not at all debating the lack of originality in Hollywood. I agree with you 100% on that.

I just fail to understand how the original is "ruined" by this announcement.

It's like this:

I love strawberries.
I've loved them all my life - they are my favorite pseudofruit.
If I just found out that Justin Beiber likes strawberries, too - does that "ruin" strawberries for me?

Of course not. The presence of fact #2 should in no way affect fact #1.

Whether or not I'm happy about having something in common with the Biebs is another matter entirely.

"Transformers" had a writer?

Jason Charlton said:

I just fail to understand how the original is "ruined" by this announcement.

Click to expand...

Of course the original is not ruined, if anything it might actually encourage some people to seek the original out.

dpippel said:

"Transformers" had a writer?

Click to expand...

I don't know about that but i heard on the grapevine that Shia Labeouf is writing Transformers 5, i say writing but i really mean copying. ( as in someone else's work )

FoxyMulder said:

What bothers me is the lack of originality running throughout Hollywood at the moment...

Click to expand...

I always say this but familiarity (or unoriginality) is exactly what the audience wants and Hollywood is just giving it to them. Look at the top 10 grossing movies this year, Neighbors* is the only one that isn't a sequel or remake or adaptation. If the audience would take a chance on a movie that was slightly new or original, Hollywood might take a chance on a movie that isn't an existing property.

* And you could even argue that Neighbors is another movie in the Seth Rogen franchise.

I'm OK with it as long as Dumbo wears lasers. Think Laser Cats only better since its Flying Laser Elephant!