In 2007, Disney found themselves with a new mega-hit that was called Enchanted. The movie took that classic Disney hand-drawn cartoon vibe, and brought it to a live-action modern day New York City. The movie went on to make $340 million worldwide, so fans will be thrilled to know that the studio is going full-steam ahead on a sequel, Enchanted 2.
Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, and Susan Sarandon starred in the original, but none are currently confirmed to be returning or not. You can be sure, however, that Disney will be going after them all aggressively. Barry Josephson and Barry Sonnenfeld are returning as producers on the sequel, but aside from that, the crew will be all new. Jessie Nelson has been brought in to write the screenplay, and Anne Fletcher will be directing this time around.
The director change is a fairly large change right off the bat — the original movie was directed by Kevin Lima, who has a pure Disney foundation. Lima worked in the Art and Animation departments on movies like The Brave Little Toaster, The Rescuers Down Under, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. He also wrote the stories for Oliver & Company and Aladdin before moving on to direct movies like A Goofy Movie, Tarzan, and Enchanted. Original screenwriter Bill Kelly isn’t so much of a big change; his resume includes only a few titles such as Blast from the Past and Premonition.
As for the ladies taking over on Enchanted 2, they may not have the Disney experience of Mr. Lima, but they’ve certainly been around. Director Anne Fletcher also helmed Step Up, 27 Dresses, and The Proposal after her time as an actress in many movies including Titanic and The Proposal. She also worked as a choreographer on a ton of projects like Firefly and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
As for new writer Jessie Nelson, she penned movies like Stepmom and Fred Claus, and also wrote and directed I Am Sam, which Sean Penn of course won an Oscar for recently *cough*. She also has some acting under her belt, such as playing the infamous Ralph in Mike Myers’ So I Married an Axe Murderer.
As you can clearly tell, Disney thinks that Enchanted‘s appealed best to the females who enjoyed it as a romantic comedy. This would seem to point to why they’ve hired more romantically-experienced film makers in lieu of the family film folks.
[Source: Variety]
