Disney Plans Full-Length Live-Action Remake of Ghoulish "Fantasia" Sequence | Playbill

News Disney Plans Full-Length Live-Action Remake of Ghoulish "Fantasia" Sequence After the success of "Maleficent" and "Cinderella," Disney is pouring resources into live-action remakes of its animated classics. The latest to be announced is an adaptation of the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence from the 1941 film "Fantasia," according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless ("The Last Witch Hunter," "Dracula Untold") will write and executive-produce the film, based on a sequence that was one of eight, and lasted just 11 minutes, in the original film.

The sequence was set to the 1867 "fantasy for orchestra" originally titled "St. John's Eve on Bald Mountain" by Russian classical composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. The music was inspired by the Witch's Sabbath of Russian folklore, which takes place on St. John's Eve. The Disney film depicted the eruption of the giant satanic god Chernobog who leads bats, ghosts, skeletons and demons in a dancing ritual around a fiery volcano. The wordless piece ends with the arrival of dawn, at which point the celebrants melt back into the earth. It was considered one of the most frightening (for kids) sections of the film

There was no word in the Hollywood Reporter story about how closely the full-length film will follow the original, or what will be added to expand it to feature length.

No release date was announced.

Here is the original animated sequence:

Disney has been announcing live-action adaptations every few weeks this spring. Most notable in the pipeline is an adaptation of the Alan Mencken-Howard Ashman musical "Beauty and the Beast." Also planned: "Mulan," "Dumbo," "Alice Through the Looking Glass," "The Jungle Book" and a new adventure for Peter Pan's Tinker Bell.

A remake of the already live-action "Sister Act" is also in the works, according to Entertainment Weekly.

 
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