You'll see a lot of headlines around the web today, talking about Disney making a live action Winnie the Pooh movie. This might be a little misleading. In Deadline's original story, they say that the film is "a live-action feature adaptation of the animated classic" but later note that it will be about "Christopher Robin as an adult, which brings him back to A.A. Milnes famous bear and the Hundred Acre Wood." The screenwriter is Alex Ross Perry, of Listen Up Philip and Queen of Earth. He's not known for his happy-go-lucky, zen-calm kiddy stories about language paradoxes and manners. Winnie the Pooh is all quite alien to his other works. So I wonder if this film might not be something more in line with Saving Mr. Banks, another recent Disney attempt to capitalise on one of their old classics? Or maybe something like Dreamchild, Dennis Potter's biopic of Alice Liddel that also found some space for a few Wonderland creatures in fantasy sequences. If it is going to be a live-action Winnie the Pooh, one good approach has been highlighted by the Smackerel short films that Disney published online a few years back. Here's a bunch of those, just to trigger your imagination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc5XriqD5PY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-IYp4_cb48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQJ-_vUo8x4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=336KzeqqgKI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqf7G2wkzU0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNeO4fnWvl0
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
