Disney Hires Game of Thrones Writer For Live-Action The Sword in the Stone

Walt Disney

At this point, Disney should just make an official statement that they plan to produce live-action remakes of all their animated features. Yes, even Snow White — even though they already passed on that due to other studios putting out their own take on the fairy tale — because eventually there will be better timing (give us a decade tops to forget them). We know the studio is going to anyway. They’re already a good ways down the list. Now, the latest title to be thrown out there, less than a week after announcement of a live-action Aladdin movie, is 1963’s The Sword in the Stone.

But here’s where this one sounds like it has great potential: THR’s Heat Vision blog reports that Disney has appropriately tapped Game of Thrones writer and producer Bryan Cogman (who is also working on a Magic the Gathering movie) to script this live-action remake, the original of which is an adaptation of T.H. White‘s 1938 novel of the same name. Of course, the new Sword in the Stone can’t be too much like Game of Thrones in its content, but the basics of the medieval fantasy genre shared by both properties make Cogman seem to be a perfect fit. They both have dragons, at least.

THR doesn’t mention this, but I’m sure Disney is looking at this project as a way to develop a whole franchise out of the plans. White wrote four more books continuing the Arthurian legend begun with The Sword in the Stone, the last published posthumously. The studio could be looking at the latest fantasy franchise in what’s collectively known as “The Once and Future King.”

The live-action Sword in the Stone will be produced by Brigham Taylor, and I only bring this up to remind that these remakes are not all being made by one collective cinematic showrunner, like a Kevin Feige (in the past I’ve lamented that these aren’t part of a grand cinematic universe, but I guess that’s what we have with the Disney TV series Once Upon a Time). Taylor previously worked on the Fantasia-spun The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and is currently producing the live-action redo of Disney’s The Jungle Book.

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