According to Deadline, Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie is going to show you a world, one that’s shining, shimmering, splendid, and may or may not feature a sentient-ish flying carpet, a very expressive monkey, and a genie who has phenomenal cosmic powers but an itty bitty living space. In other words, he’s doing a live-action remake of Aladdin, Disney’s 1992 Oscar-winning animated classic. Guy Ritchie may seem like a weird pick for Disney’s wave of live-action remakes, but at its heart, Aladdin is a film about a criminal from the wrong side of the streets who puts on an elaborate scheme in order to try and win the heart of the woman he loves. If you were to picture that story on the gritty streets of London instead of Agrabah, it would be about as Guy Ritchie as you can get (well, it would be, if it had a few more gunfights).
With a live-action Aladdin in the works, Disney must now take on the unenviable task of finding someone to replace Robin Williams as the genie. Surely nobody could live up to that iconic performance, so maybe the studio should just create a fully CG character and dub in Williams’ original dialogue? Granted, a special provision in his will specifically forbade that, but Williams’ terms only go for 25 years after his death. If Disney can’t find somebody new, it could just keep this project on the shelf until then.