A new report has details on Disney’s still-unnamed streaming service, which is set to roll out in 2019. You won’t be seeing any R-rated films there, but you will see its planned live-action adaptation of their animated classic, The Sword in the Stone. Is Disney pulling a Netflix now?
According to Deadline, Disney CEO Bob Iger has been unveiling new details about Disney’s plans for its streaming service to creatives. Deadline states that Disney’s streaming service will launch in the US in 2019, before expanding internationally. No R-rated content will be included in the service; that will instead find a home on Hulu, which Disney should have a controlling stake in if its purchase of 20th Century Fox goes through as planned. Iger had previously said the Marvel/Netflix series would likely stay where they are, which this new report reconfirms. But here’s what Deadline had to say about Disney’s “priority film projects”:
Don Quixote, from a Billy Ray script; Lady and the Tramp; The Paper Magician; Stargirl, to be directed by Julia Hart; and Togo, to be directed by Ericson Core.
In post-production and bound for the streaming service are the Mark Waters-directed Magic Camp, and the Mark Lawrence-directed Noelle with Anna Kendrick, Bill Hader and Shirley MacLaine.
Priority development projects include 3 Men and a Baby; Sword and the Stone; and Timmy Failure, the latter of which has Spotlight director Tom McCarthy in the creative mix.
Seeing The Sword in the Stone on that list is a bit odd. Disney first announced it was working on that project when it hired Game of Thrones’ Bryan Cogman to write it. We hadn’t had many updates until last month when 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was rumored to be joining. This wouldn’t be quite the same move as Netflix picking up feature films, but it would be bold for Disney to release one of its many live-action adaptations to gain subscribers.
Furthermore, Disney allegedly wants five original TV series for the service. Already previously revealed by the company: A live action Star Wars show, a High School Musical series, an animated Monsters Inc. show, and a live-action Marvel project.
[Deadline]