Disney announced in 2018 that it had added Lilo And Stitch to the list of its animated canon that it would turn into a live-action (or, in the case of The Lion King, a photorealistic CG) adventure. Things have been quiet since then, but now Crazy Rich Asiansdirector Jon M. Chu is in final talks to actually wrangle the movie to life.
Directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, the original followed Lilo, a lonely Hawaiian girl who forms a bond with a doglike extraterrestrial creature, whom she names Stitch. Stitch, who is engineered to cause chaos, has a change of heart as Lilo teaches Stitch the importance of "Ohana," the Hawaiian concept of family and introduces him to the music of one Elvis Presley.
The film was successful enough to spawn to straight-to-home-entertainment sequels, a TV movie and a TV series. Of all the recent Disney conversion jobs, this feels the least suited to live-action, mostly because the animated nature of 2002 film allowed for a lot of wacky action that would surely be more expensive to pull off with real people and a CG critter. But Chu will be overseeing, even as Disney looks for a writer to work with on a new version of the script, with the current draft by Mike Van Waes.
Chu's next film to hit cinemas will be In The Heights, due on 30 July 2021.