While we’re all waiting patiently to see what Guy Ritchie can do with his live-action version of Aladdin there’s one man that is keener than us all to see what the British director has mustered up with the film.
John August originally penned the screenplay for Disney’s take on “Aladdin.” Since then Ritchie himself and Vanessa Taylor, who recently earned an Academy Award nomination for co-writing “The Shape Of Water” alongside Guillermo Del Toro, were brought on to polish and adjust August’s script.
Only August will know exactly how much script doctoring was done to his efforts. But rather than feeling aggrieved at the changes, August is instead excited to see what they are, a point he explained to me when I talked with the screenwriter over the phone last week.
First of all, though, August recalled why he took on the challenge of writing a remake of such a beloved film.
“With ’Aladdin’ I just hoped I could come to it with an enthusiasm for what made the original movie so great, and for what it could be, and then I focused on why I wanted to make this movie today. That’s all you can do.”
August then added, “But like all of the studio movies you make it is a very collaborative experience. I wrote a script a couple of years ago that got people very excited, and then the machinery starts. I am as curious as anyone to see what the final film is like. It’s a giant machine and we’ll see how it all turns out.”
We’ll finally get to see just that when Guy Ritchie’s “Aladdin” is released on May 24, 2019.
In the meantime, though, you can now listen to John August detailing the writing and the publication of his debut book “Arlo Finch In The Valley Of Fire” in the Wonderley podcast “Launch.”
“Arlo Finch In The Valley Of Fire” is released on February 6, but the first episodes of “Launch” are already online.
