I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by [Disney]
Sarah Polley might follow-up her Oscar-winning 'Women Talking' with... live-action 'Bambi'? Jesus Christ, dude
Tell me if you’ve heard this one: filmmaker works for years to get their passion project off the ground. It’s a huge success, either at the box office or with critics or, even better, both. They’re rightly celebrated, heralded for saving the business or saving the art form or even better, both. AND THEN DISNEY COMES A-CALLIN’.
Actually, it’s not always Disney (sometimes it’s a subsidiary of Disney, like Marvel or Lucasfilm) but the story is always the same: some bright directing light purchased and reinstalled in the House of Mouse. It’s Chloe Zhao, fresh off ‘Nomadland’, directing ‘The Eternals’. It’s David Lowery going from ‘The Green Knight’ to ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’. It’s Barry Jenkins signing on for ‘The Lion King II’ (due in 2024). The list goes on, and the list will GO1 on, with writer-director Sarah Polley now in talks to helm a live-action ‘Bambi’. “She writes women well, I think she’s really going to bring something to the Bambi mom relationship” I can almost guarantee a studio executive, making more money than the WGA is asking for for all 11,500 of its members, said out loud.
To be clear: this is not about Polley. I mean it is, insomuch as any adult is responsible for their own decisions. I don’t believe any of the people helming Disney’s now legion live-action remakes was forced to do so at gunpoint. But it’s more just a sad commentary on the state of cinema today that these unique cinematic voices are so regularly swallowed up by a machine that, so far anyway, seems to have little interest in actually employing the thing that makes these artists unique.
(who you should absolutely subscribe to!) tackled this subject the other day, more eloquently than I can:“…if you’ve watched any of these movies, you know that the way Disney does this is particularly egregious, as it generally seems like the director with the cool name is present solely as a marketing hook, with very little recognizable imprint on the final product. It’s sad watching them get drained of their artistic energies by clout vampires.”
Listen, it’s not like the battle between art and commerce is new. I’m not over here flabbergasted by Disney’s talent-poaching practices, eyes widening like some innocent forest creature. I’m not Bambi. I’m a man.
But I think I speak for most of us in bemoaning what feels like… more overt shamelessness than usual on the part of Disney (…or Marvel, or Lucasfilm) as they strip-mine every part of their library for ‘memberberries recognition while pointing to their latest director hire as proof that actually, there is an artist behind CGI Rafiki, okay? Now pay up or your children WILL scream.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said David Lowery directed ‘Wendy & Lucy’ — which is actually a Kelly Reichardt movie. Lowery directed ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’. There’s also the 2020 Behn Zeitlin-directed ‘Wendy’ and the 2014 Luc Besson movie ‘Lucy’, for added confusion.
This is actually a subtle nod to the 1999 movie ‘Go’, in which Polley played grocery store clerk Ronna
For those of you keeping score at home, here are all the live-action remakes Disney's already banked -- and the ten remakes slated to arrive in the next few years: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_Disney_live-action_adaptations_and_remakes_of_Disney_animated_films
(thank you Bobby Kessler for stoking my ire even more!)