“The Aristocats” is getting the live-action treatment and Questlove will be along for the ride! The Disney classic is officially getting reimagined and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has been tapped to direct it.
Not only will Thompson direct the film, which is described as a “live-action/hybrid reimagining” of the 1970 classic, he is also listed as an executive producer and will oversee the music, according to Deadline. Will Gluck and Keith Bunin will write the film’s script and Tarik Trotter, Shawn Gee and Zarah Zohlman will executive produce through Two One Five Entertainment, The Roots’ production company.
The original film follows a family of aristocratic cats set to inherit a fortune from the owner when the owner’s butler suddenly kidnaps the cats, intent on gaining the fortune for himself. The cats befriend a “smooth-talking tomcat” (J. Thomas O’Malley) as they try to make it back home. The film contains the popular Disney song, “Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat.”
Questlove took to Instagram to celebrate his new gig. “They chose i to chase the cat … I basically have 2 life goals: 1. Don’t dismiss my dreams & 2. Get out of my own way,” he wrote.
The news comes a week after the musician announced the launch of book publishing company AUWA Books, an imprint of MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, theGrio previously reported.
This marks one of many cinematic ventures Questlove has embarked on in the last few years, coming after his successful documentary, “Summer of Soul,” which took home the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2021 and would go on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
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