‘Cyrano The Moor’: David Oyelowo Will Star In Live-Action Disney Musical
Today in extremely cool movie news, Disney announced they will be making a new live-action musical starringDavid Oyelowo, fromTarell Alvin McCraney, the playwright who inspired Barry Jenkins’Moonlight.The House of Mouse has been slowly but surely remaking their animated classics into live-action musicals, like last year’sBeauty and the Beastwith Emma Watson and a bunch of CGI tomfoolery. But this latest project,Cyrano the Moor, is a new concept inspired by two classic plays. Read more about Disney’sCyrano the Moorbelow.
PerTHR,Cyrano the Mooris inspired by both William Shakespeare’sOthelloand Edmond Rostand’s 1897 playCyrano de Bergerac, and will somehow fuse these two highly respected works into a big new musical. Just how remains to be seen, since both plays are quite different: Shakespeare’s play focuses on a Moorish general who is tricked into murdering his wife by a man he thought to be his friend, andCyrano de Bergeracfollows a man with anextremelylarge nose who uses another, normal-nosed fellow to help him woo the girl of his dreams (who is also his cousin, because things were different in 1897, alright?). Nonetheless, this is an incredibly intriguing idea, and much more exciting than Disney just cherry-picking older animated films from their vault and trying to recreate them in live-action.
McCraney, whose unpublished and semi-autobiographical playIn Moonlight Black Boys Look Bluewas the inspiration for the Oscar winning filmMoonlight, and for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, apparently has found just the right way to make this not just a musical, but a Disney musical. No director has been announced yet, butTendo NagendaandChaz Salembier, who are overseeing Disney’sRocketeerreboot, are also overseeing development of this project.
Cyrano de Bergerachas been adapted into several films before, including the 1987 comedyRoxanne, which featured Steve Martin in the lead.Othellohas also had its fair-share of adaptations, including the 2001 filmO, which took the events of Shakespeare’s play and set them on a high school basketball court, because sure, why not?
In addition to starring in the film, Oyelowo, who will next appear in the newCloverfieldfranchise flickGod Particle, will also produce, along with his wifeJessica Oyelowo. Oyelowo previously worked with Disney on the under-seen 2016 movieQueen of Katwe. Disney is also currently turningDumbointo a live-action musical with director Tim Burton, but don’t even pretend that sounds as interesting as this project.
