Lock, Stock And One Flying Carpet: Guy Ritchie In Talks To Direct Live-Action Aladdin

Disney is set to add to their series of live-action remakes of classic animated features with an in-the-flesh Aladdin rumoured to be in the works.

This will come as no surprise to most Disney fans, with a substantial number of the studio's other classics already being reincarnated as live action reboots. Cinderella, starring Cate Blanchett, Lily James and Helena Bonham Carter, began the trend in 2015. The Jungle Book was released earlier this year directed by Jon Favreau, who has also been brought on board to make a live action The Lion King. Beauty And The Beast, starring Emma Watson (Harry Potter) and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), is set to hit screens in 2017 and a Mary Poppins sequel, starring Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt, and live action remakes of Mulan and The Little Mermaid are also in production.

What is surprising is the supposed choice of director for the new Aladdin, according to Hollywood Reporter: the British master of gangster movies (and the former Mr Madonna) Guy Ritchie. The Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels director has never made a movie aimed at children before, although his fun-filled duo of Sherlock Holmes films, starring Robert Downey Jr, showed a softer side to the cockney filmmaker.

This isn’t the first time Disney has recruited unexpected directors of late. A live action reboot of Winnie The Pooh, which will follow Pooh’s boyhood friend Christopher Robin as an adult, is set to be written and directed by 32-year-old American indie film favourite Alex Ross Perry.