Sarah Polley is no longer attached to direct a live-action remake of Bambi for Disney.
IndieWire reports that while the remake of the 1942 animated classic is still in development, the award-winning Toronto filmmaker will not helm the project. The publication cites a source who claims "there's no drama in the split," and that "things didn't work out."
Disney first announced its live-action adaptation of Bambi in 2020. Polley was in talks to join the project after she won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Women Talking, which Exclaim! named among the Best Films of 2022.
Polley's exit from the Bambi remake follows the late February news of Disney live-action film head Sean Bailey leaving the studio. Bailey, who had been at the company for 15 years, has been behind live-action reworks of animated Disney classics including 2019's The Lion King, 2017's Beauty and the Beast and 2019's Aladdin.
IndieWire notes that the live-action Bambi movie would "likely be in the style of The Lion King, which resembled a live-action feature but was largely animated with CGI rather than hand-drawn animation."
An adaptation of Felix Salten's 1923 coming-of-age novel, Disney's 1942 adaptation of Bambi was the studio's fifth-ever animated feature film.
