While it continues to mine its animated archives for films to convert into live-action adventures, Disney is turning its eye to other classic tales as source material. The latest target for the Mouse House is Jack And The Beanstalk, for which the studio has hired the services of Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan to develop and one of his regular collaborators, writer Tom Schnauz, for script duty.
Jack And The Beanstalk, for the three people who might not know the story, finds a farm boy sent to sell a cow at market who instead swaps the animal for magic beans. They then grow into a massive beanstalk that leads Jack to an adventure in a land of giants, where he encounters a golden goose and its very angry, very big owner.
While Deadline reports that Gilligan – who has written a detailed outline – has cooked up a revisionist take on the traditional story, we don’t expect the tale to be tweaked so that Jack ends up forsaking heroic deeds for a criminal enterprise. And it’s almost surprising that someone would want to try the Jack world so soon after Bryan Singer took a swing with 2013's Jack The Giant Slayer, itself a tweak on the original, which didn’t exactly conjure up a golden goose at the box office. Coincidentally, this will mark the third time Disney has adapted Jack – the first was a short in 1922, followed by 1947’s Mickey And The Beanstalk, which screened as part of anthology animation Fun And Fancy Free.
It’s early days for the film, but Schnauz is on board to write the actual screenplay and there’s a chance Gilligan might consider directing. The pair has been busy working on the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul, which has aired a short, successful first season and will be back next year.