EXCLUSIVE: Disney is taking a fresh look at Tangled, we hear, which is resuming early development with Scarlett Johansson circling the role of Mother Gothel in the live-action take of the 2010 animated feature.
The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey is still attached to direct, working from a script by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. Disney hit pause back in April after getting jitters from the box office performance from its live-action take of Snow White, however, there’s a big difference in regards to the audience appeal for old Disney animated pics receiving the live action take, versus those titles post the 1989 Little Mermaid musical renaissance. Those live action redos, i.e. Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Lilo & Stitch have had greater success at the box office. Lilo & Stitch alone is the highest grossing MPA title of 2025 to date with $1.03 billion worldwide.
Nothing has been formally greenlit yet in regards to Tangled.
The original 2010 movie, which grossed close to $600M worldwide, followed the magically long-haired Rapunzel, who had spent her entire life in a tower. But now that a runaway thief has stumbled upon her, she is about to discover the world for the first time, and who she really is.
Under its leadership, the Disney Live Action team is continuing to celebrate/revisit existing stories through a modern lens, while also investing in new IP – as evidenced by the “Impossible Creatures” announcement earlier this week – in an effort to build a foundation of new stories that can be told for generations to come.
Johansson feature directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, starring June Squibb recently opened in theaters via Sony Pictures Classics and has a 94% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie received a six minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival world premiere. The two-time Oscar nominee starred in two movies this summer, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme and Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth, which at $867.9M, is the third highest grossing MPA title of the year. The CAA; Yorn Levine Barnes, etc’; True Public Relations repped Johansson’s movies have grossed $17.7 billion at the worldwide box office.
The post ‘Tangled’: Live-Action Take Resumes Early Development At Disney; Scarlett Johansson Circling Role Of Mother Gothel appeared first on Deadline.
