Disney doesn’t show any signs of slowing down when it comes to live-action adaptations. According to The DisInsider, Disney is developing a live-action version of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairytale, The Snow Queen. Frozen and Frozen II are loosely based on this same fairytale. However, sources tell The DisInsider that this is not a remake of Frozen. Instead, it will be a relatively brand new film.
Disney is making live-action remakes of its own movies more frequently with each passing year. As recently as a few weeks ago, news of a new Hercules broke. But while some of them are direct translations of the original, others are thankfully switching things up. The Snow Queen appears to be one of them, along with the live-action Rapunzel currently in development. This project is in the very early stages, so story details are unknown. Kristen Burr (Cruella, Christopher Robin) is attached as a producer with the film aiming for a theatrical release. But we’ll have to wait and see how exactly this film will differentiate itself from Disney’s animated hits.
Hans Christian Andersen originally published The Snow Queen in 1844. However, the original story only has a few things in common with Disney’s Frozen. Andersen’s stories also served as the basis for other Disney movies like The Little Mermaid and The Emperor’s New Groove.
It’s no surprise that Disney wants to revisit Frozen given the franchise’s wide appeal. The first movie is an Oscar-winning smash hit. Frozen II became the highest-grossing animated film of all time with approximately $1.5 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Once Upon a Time, a hit series on the Disney-owned ABC, also featured a Snow Queen character. Ingrid the Snow Queen (played by Elizabeth Mitchell) was an antagonist in the show’s fourth season and was a maternal Aunt to Anna and Elsa.