A new sci-fi fantasy adaptation of the classic middle east folk tale collection, Arabian Nights, is in development at the Walt Disney Studios with Rise screenwriter Arash Amel penning the script and executive producing, according to Deadline.
What’s Happening:
- Walt Disney Studios is reportedly working on 1001 Nights, a sci-fi fantasy film inspired by the classic Middle East folk tale collection, One Thousand And One Nights, aka Arabian Nights.
- Plot details are scarce at this time, but the film will reportedly be a standalone film not tied to any other property, namely Disney’s Aladdin, which itself was an adaptation of one of the stories in the Arabian Nights collection. Among the stories is also The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, which is also adapted as an attraction at one of the Disney Parks, Tokyo DisneySea.
- The film is being penned by Arash Amel, who recently wrote the Disney+ original movie, Rise, about NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, and who previously penned A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike as war correspondent Marie Colvin.
- LA-based Amel was born in Wales and spent his early childhood in Iran until the Iranian Revolution prompted his family’s return to the UK. Amel served as executive producer on the recent Netflix sci-fi action movie Outside The Wire, starring Anthony Mackie. He is in pre-production as a producer on Amazon Studios pic Fred & Ginger, based on his original screenplay. The musical drama will star Jamie Bell and Margaret Qualley as the iconic silver screen pair, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Upcoming is the release of action-comedy Snafu (which he scripted) with Jackie Chan and John Cena, and he has Guy Ritchie pic The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare due to shoot later this year for Paramount and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
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