Dean Fleischer Camp, the filmmaker behind indie darling Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, to direct remake of live action feature Lilo & Stitch, the 2002 animated movie from Walt Disney feature animation.
Chris Kekaniokalani Bright is in final negotiations to pen the script, is a Hawaii-born and -based scribe whose script Conviction made the Black List.
The move gets the project, which will be a tentpole feature for Disney+, back into the water. Stitch was first thrown into development back in 2018 with up-and-comer Mike Van Waes writing the screenplay. Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich of Rideback are producing. Rideback’s Ryan Halprin is executive producing.
It’s described as a Hawaii-centric story told of the bond formed between a lonely human girl named Lilo and a dog-like alien named Stitch, who is engineered to be a force of destruction. Pursuing aliens, social workers and the theme of family bonds figure into the proceedings.
The movie was a bright spot in a down period of Disney’s animation history and launched several direct-to-video sequels as well as television series. Lilo is intended to be a live-action/CG hybrid, a form that Fleischer Camp has a proven facility with. Marcel is a heartwarming tale centered on a snail on an adventure into the human world.
The movie has 99 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, is one of the most acclaimed of the year and A24 is using a platform release to build word of mouth. It has one of the highest per-screen averages and has made almost $1 million domestically on only 48 screens.
