EXCLUSIVE: Eva Green is in talks to star in Tim Burton’s Dumbo, the live-action adaptation of the 1941 animated classic for Disney. Sources tell me she’s being eyed for one of the three main adult roles in the title, which is edging closer and closer towards a production start.
A Green-Burton reunion would make a lot of sense given the sizzling actress seems to be the director’s new muse, and Burton has a habit of working again and again with actors he likes. Green played the title character in Burton’s family fantasy Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, based on the novel by Ransom Riggs. It grossed $297.4M worldwide last year. She also starred in Burton’s vampire comedy Dark Shadows alongside Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer, which generated $254.5M worldwide in 2012.
The live-action remake of Dumbo is written by Ehren Kruger, who produces with Justin Springer (Tron: Legacy). Disney’s original version focused on a big-eared, lovable circus elephant, who is mocked for his large ears but learns to use them as wings to fly.
It’s the latest in Disney’s long line of reboots: This month, the studio is set to release a live-action version of Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson, Luke Evans and Dan Stevens, and Emma Stone is set to star as villainess Cruella De Vil in the upcoming 101 Dalmatians prequel Cruella. The studio has had huge success with reinventions of classic animated fares like Angelina Jolie starrer Maleficent and Johnny Depp’s Alice In Wonderland, the latter of which was directed by Burton. Those pics earned $758.5M and $1.02B worldwide respectively. Its 2015 reboot of Cinderella starring Lily James took $543.5M worldwide.
Green has been hugely in-demand lately. After a successful run on Showtime’s psychological thriller series Penny Dreadful, the French actress starred in Miss Peregrine and then worked with Roman Polanski on his latest title Based on a True Story, which is currently in post. She’s also starred alongside Alicia Vikander, Charles Dance and Charlotte Rampling in Lisa Langseth’s Euphoria, about two sisters who meet up again after many years apart and the profound journey that they undertake together.
Green is also attached to star with Gemma Arterton in Vita and Virginia, a title which looks at the love affair between Virginia Woolf (Green) and Vita Sacksville-West (Arterton). But word is that should the Dumbo deal make, dates for that title will have to be shifted.
Green is repped by UTA in the U.S. and Tavistock Wood in the UK.
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