Director Sarah Polley Exits Disney’s Live-Action ‘Bambi’

Disney is going through quite a pivotal moment when it comes to their live-action film division. Just two weeks ago, Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, had exited the company after a decade in a half. David Greenbaum, co-president of 20th Century Studios is now at the helm, but this begs the question, what happens now? Well, we have information on one project.

In a must read report from TheWrap’s Drew Taylor regarding Disney’s live-action division, they have learned that directors Sarah Polley has exited the live-action Bambi remake. Bailey was the mastermind behind Disney’s successful live-action remakes, which have recently sputtered, so it is unlikely the project will move forward following his exit.

With Greenbaum in charge, we could see a shift in how Disney develops their live-action films and the remakes don’t appear to be in his plans. According to Puck News, Greenbaum reportedly pitched his approach to new projects as one simple question, which was: “Does this film need to exist?”

Disney’s Bambi remake was viewed as a companion piece to films like The Jungle Book and The Lion King and was expected to use the same technology. Disney was cognizant that Bambi is less epic in scope and story and it was not aiming to shoehorn a larger narrative onto the classic tale.