‘Tangled’ Live-Action Movie Revived at Disney With Scarlett Johansson Circling Major Role

Disney is proceeding with its live-action “Tangled” after putting the project indefinitely on pause earlier this year. Casting hasn’t been solidified but Scarlett Johansson is being eyed to star as Mother Gothel.

Disney halted the production in April following the commercial failure of March’s “Snow White” adaptation. But in the following months, the studio’s “Lilo & Stitch” remake struck a major chord at the box office to the tune of $1 billion globally. A key difference between “Snow White” and “Lilo & Stitch” was cultural relevance (or lack thereof), insiders suggest. The original “Snow White” was released in 1937 and is no longer the rage with kids today. Meanwhile “Lilo & Stitch,” based on the 2002 film, never waned in popularity; it’s been a top title on Disney+ and, in 2024 alone, drove over $2.6 billion in retail sales. And that towering figure was before the adorable blue agent-of-chaos even returned to the big screen. Clearly the studio is hoping that “Tangled” has a similar cache with younger audiences.

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“Tangled,” like the original 2010 animated movie, is based on the Brothers Grimm story about the magically long-haired princess Rapunzel. In this adventure, she is eventually rescued from her secluded tower by an outlaw named Flynn Rider. Mandy Moore voiced the musically inclined heroine in the first film, which generated $592 million at the global box office. That would have been a better result had the movie not reportedly carried a $260 million production budget. However the film, which boasts the Oscar-nominated song “When Will My Life Begin,” has remained a creative source for Disney with spinoffs as the 2012 short film “Tangled Ever After” and 2017 TV series “Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure.”

“The Greatest Showman” filmmaker Michael Gracey remains in talks to direct the remake from a script by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Sony’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer” reboot). Additional casting has yet to be announced.

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