Bless our souls, Guy Ritchie’s on a roll. The director’s been especially busy in recent years – off the back of his billion-dollar live-action Aladdin adaptation for Disney, he’s been cranking out geezer-flicks like The Gentleman, the Jason Statham-starring Wrath Of Man, and this year’s upcoming crime caper Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre, all released within a few short years. And now, he’s heading back to the Mouse House – according to Deadline, Ritchie has been tapped as the director take Disney’s live-action Hercules movie from zero to hero.
Little is currently known about the new version of Hercules – though going by Ritchie’s Aladdin adaptation (and similar remakes of Beauty & The Beast and The Lion King), we’d imagine the songs are still in play here – unless they’re going the Mulan route, and turning this one into a historical Ancient Greek epic. There’s no casting yet for the live-action Herc himself, either. All we do know is that Joe and Anthony Russo are producing under their AGBO banner, while Shang-Chi screenwriter Dave Callaham has written an initial screenplay.
Hercules doesn’t have a date yet – but if it gets started quickly, it could theoretically be ready for a release window that Disney has staked out in August 2023. If not, expect this one around 2024 or beyond. In the meantime, Robert Zemeckis’ take on Pinocchio will be coming to Disney+ on 8 September this year, while Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid is due in cinemas next May. As for Ritchie, he’s currently in post-production on another movie, post-Operation Fortune – a crime-thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal, tentatively titled The Interpreter. Say what you like about the man, but he sure knows how to go the distance.