Disney’s Making A CHRISTOPHER ROBIN Movie That Sounds Alarmingly Like HOOK

Disney's been on a hot streak lately with a series of utterly fantastic live-action remakes, including The Jungle Book, Pete's Dragon, and Bill Condon's forthcoming blockbuster retelling of Beauty And The Beast. Now they've got another live-action iron in the fire, a Christopher Robin movie written by Spotlight's Tom McCarthy and directed by Monster's Ball's Marc Forster.

The plot, as described by The Tracking Board, sounds kinda familiar:

In A.A. Milne’s book series, Christopher Robin was a boy who shares his adventures with the animals of the Hundred Acre Wood. Forster’s film will follow Christopher as a work-obsessed adult who has little time for his wife and child, let alone to indulge the imagination he had when he was younger. When Pooh re-enters his life, he must figure out how to reconcile his family troubles while helping his childhood friend, or else he risks losing everything he holds dear.

Not quite Hook, but kind of Hook, right? Hook, as you might recall, is the Steven Spielberg film many of us don't make eye contact with at parties, and told the story of a grown-up Peter Pan who'd since gone on to become a hard-working, family-ignoring lawyer. He gets drawn back to Neverland by Tinkerbell to rediscover the imagination he had as a youngster, and maybe save his own kids along the way. It was ... well, look, we don't need to keep talking about Hook. But you see the similarities, right?

Anyway, McCarthy's an Oscar winner, Forster's an Oscar nominee, and The Tracking Board says Disney's aiming high for the role of Christopher Robin (they offer Benedict Cumberbatch as an example of the level of talent being pursued for this project). So, whether the plot seems alarmingly familiar or not, this project will have a built-in pedigree. And lord knows Disney's live-action output has more than earned our trust at this point, so ... who knows? Could be a winner!

We'll keep you update on all the Christopher Robin news you can handle in the months ahead. Stay tuned.