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EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the Christmas Day release of his experimental Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, Michael Gracey has entered negotiations to direct a live-action Tangled film for Disney, Deadline can reveal.
A modern retelling of the classic Rapunzel fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, Tangled is being described as a revival of Disney’s Oscar-nominated 2010 animated feature of the same name, which was the 50th put out by the studio. Plot details are being kept under wraps but the film is expected to follow along the lines of the animated version.
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, the multi-hyphenate behind titles like Do Revenge, Thor: Love and Thunder and Sony’s upcoming reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer, penned the most recent draft of the script. Kristin Burr and Lucy Kitada will produce for Burr! Productions. No word yet on casting.
Directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, the original Tangled starred Mandy Moore as Rapunzel, with Zachary Levi as roguish thief Flynn, and Donna Murphy as the Mother Gothel. A pop culture phenomenon, the film grossed over $590 million worldwide, scored an Oscar nomination for original song “I See the Light,” and was among the films revitalizing Disney’s princess genre for a new generation. Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater were behind the pic’s music.
Tangled is overdue for a new feature expanding the franchise, as the only other projects that the hugely popular film has spurred thus far are Tangled Ever After, a short that played before a 3D theatrical re-release of Beauty and the Beast and on Disney Channel, and the Disney Channel animated series Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. In the years following its release, there was talk about an animated sequel that never came to fruition. There have been rumblings about a live-action film for some time now, though, with Zachary Levi pitching Timothée Chalamet to play Flynn in a new film for Disney.
Gracey is best known for his directorial debut, The Greatest Showman, one of the highest grossing live-action musicals of all time, starring Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum, which took in more than $435 million worldwide and earned a number of major accolades, including a Grammy and a Golden Globe. Most recently, he co-wrote, directed and produced Better Man, a semi-autobiographical musical about British pop icon Williams, in which he’s portrayed as a chimpanzee. Premiering at Telluride, the film will be released in the U.S. by Paramount Pictures. Upcoming, he’s also slated to direct Paramount’s adaptation of the bestselling children’s book, Nevermoor, and will produce and direct a musical based on the life of opera singer Luciano Pavarotti for the West End.
Robinson co-wrote, directed and produced Do Revenge, a dark teen comedy starring Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke, which released on Netflix in September 2022. Co-writer alongside Taika Waititi on his Marvel pic Thor: Love and Thunder, she prior to that wrote, directed and exec produced Netflix’s 2019 rom-com Somone Great, starring Gina Rodriguez, Brittany Snow, and DeWanda Wise, in her feature debut. Upcoming, she’s set to direct the next film in Sony’s I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise from her script written with Sam Lansky, off a draft by Leah McKendrick.
Past projects for Burr! Productions include Nicolas Cage comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, and Batgirl, which Warner Bros wound up shelving, controversially.
Both Gracey and Robinson are with CAA. Gracey is also repped by Partizan and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum; Robinson by Gotham/Principal, Gotham Group, and Yorn, Levine, Barnes.
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