Disney's Bambi is getting a live-action remake, with Sarah Polley in talks to direct

From lions to mermaids to bears — Disney is continuing the live-action remake streak with the 1942 animated classic Bambi.

The live-action remake is in early development at Disney, with recent Oscar winner and Women Talking filmmaker Sarah Polley attached to direct. EW has learned that A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster will pen the script, and Depth of Field is producing. The duo previously co-wrote Maleficent: Mistress of Evil for Disney, alongside Linda Woolverton.

The live-action remake was previously announced in 2020 and, at the time, Captain Marvel's Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Chaos Walking's Lindsey Beer were attached to write. Bambi will be the latest Disney animated classics to get the live-action treatment — a strategy that most recently included the release of Rob Marshall's The Little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey.

The original 1942 Bambi, through gorgeous animation, chronicles the adventures of the titular young deer and his woodland friends, a rabbit named Thumper and a skunk named Flower. Unlike previous choices for Disney's remake slate, Bambi isn't known for musical earworms or a plot of great epic scope. It's a simple coming-of-age story whose most famous aspect is the tragic death of Bambi's mother at the hands of a human hunter. The film sees Bambi cautioned against the dangers of the forest as he comes to understand the greatest joys and tragedies of the world.

Following in the footsteps of The Lion King and The Jungle Book, the film will use photorealistic CGI to animate the creatures at the center of the story. In other words, the harrowing death of Bambi's mother will be even more realistic, ready to scar even more children for life.

The oncoming Bambi resurgence won't be helmed by Disney alone. Last year, Rhys Frake-Waterfield, who directed the notorious slasher flick Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey, announced plans to turn Bambi into a killing machine with Bambi: The Reckoning, a twisted adaptation of Felix Salten's 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods.

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