EXCLUSIVE: After winning the Oscar for Best Documentary last year, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has found his feature film directing debut as sources tell Deadline he will helm a live-action/hybrid reimaging of The Aristocats for Walt Disney Studios. Thompson also is executive producing and overseeing music for the film, whose script is by Will Gluck and Keith Bunin. Tarik Trotter, Shawn Gee and Zarah Zohlman will exec produce on behalf of Two One Five Entertainment.
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Gluck and his production company, Olive Bridge, are producing along with Thompson’s Two One Five.
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The film is based on the 1970 animated pic about a family of Parisian felines who learn they are set to inherit a fortune from their owner. When the owner’s jealous butler kidnaps them and leaves them in the country, they must team up with a smooth-talking tomcat to try to make it back home before it’s too late.
A founding member of iconic Philadelphia hip hop band The Roots, six-time Grammy winner Thompson made the jump into directing with his doc Summer of Soul, about the 1969 Harlem Cultural festival. The pic premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, taking home the Grand Jury Prize and beginning its run of accolades that would culminate at the 2022 Oscars.
Since then, Thompson had been weighing his options of what made sense when it came to directing a feature film, ultimately landing on Aristocats. He is repped by WME and manager Shawn Gee.
Damn, everyone’s quick to hate on this here. Just imagine Questlove as an OG O’Malley, adding a load of jazz and Hip-Hop to the story, mesmerizing the powers and Big Cats that be. Then letting this rags to riches story just play out for itself. Better than the original, because of the added soul, methinks
Did anyone ask for this remake?
I did
No one wants this instead if this they should have let Jordan Peele make his Gargoyles movie and they have the rights to adapt the Black Cauldron novels adapt those. They own Cross Gen comics all of those are ripe for TV shows and films.
He’s done 1 documentary and suddenly he’s given a big directing role? How does that qualify him to direct what no doubt will be a big budget film? I thought Disney has had enough with the string of the recent flops but I guess not…
This is just like Ava DuVernay with Wrinkle In Time. Being a good documentary filmmaker doesn’t always translate to being a feature director, especially with a VFX heavy film. Best of luck to hime, he’s a talented man.