Tim Burton Set For Live-Action Dumbo

Given how successful Tim Burton’s last retrofit of a Disney animated film into a live-action adventure fared with** Alice In Wonderland,** it’s entirely unsurprising to learn that the Mouse House has now handed him another gig. This time, his assignment is **Dumbo.

Talking with the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog, Disney president of production Sean Bailey says that the studio is in development for a new take on the flying elephant tale, and that Burton is the man to wrangle it on to screens.

There’s no release date yet, and Bailey said nothing else about the film other than “it’s a big world” (off-brand for Disney, surely, given it let loose one of the most dangerous earworms known to man or beast{ =nofollow}), which leads us to think that the story will expand beyond the basics. The 1941 film saw the young circus elephant ridiculed for his enormous ears, but who derives confidence from his best pal, a mouse that convinces him he can fly using his oversized lugholes. Cue songs, bonding and a happy ending. How the story will evolve beyond that under Burton’s direction remains to be seen, though twitter is already groaning under the weight of several trillion “Johnny Depp as Dumbo!” jokes.

Burton is currently at work on book adaptation Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, which will arrive next year. He’s also a producer on Alice sequel Through The Looking Glass, with James Bobin directing. As for Disney’s latest ‘toon-to-live-action conversion job, Cinderella waltzes in on March 27.