Disney's looking to turn another classic fantasy into a film, but this time it's not adapting one of its own animated offerings. The studio has Lasse Hallstrom on board to make a new, live-action version of The Nutcracker called The Nutcracker And The Four Realms.
Originally written by E.T.A. Hoffman as a story called The Nutcracker And The Mouse King and famously turned into a hugely successful ballet by Tchaikovsky, the basic plot follows a young girl named Clara who receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather one Christmas Eve. Seized with the need to see her present as the clock strikes midnight on Christmas Day, she's transported into a fantastical world rent asunder by a conflict between gingerbread soldiers and an army of mice. It's long since become holiday tradition and has been used by Disney before for an episode of Mickey Mouse Works in 1991. Parts of the score of the ballet also popped up in 1940's Fantasia.
But it has been a much tougher task for full-length film adaptations. Several live-action versions are in development and the most recent version, 2012's The Nutcracker In 3D, was a huge box office bomb. Disney will be hoping for much better things with this new version, which features a script by Ashleigh Powell, who had been writing it for two years before Disney bought it last year.
As for Hallstrom, he has canine drama A Dog's Purpose due out on January 27 next year.