Disney News: 'Three Men And A Baby' Reboot, A Superhero Pet Squirrel, More 'Ice Age', Animated 'Night At The Museum,' And Much More

In case you spent all day yesterday on the Moon, in a cave, with your fingers in your ears, Disney hosted a massive Investor Day presentation where they laid out plans for all sorts of future films and TV shows. It was kind of like Comic-Con, but all Disney, all the time, and with a lot more talk about stock options. We here at /Film covered the biggest of the big news yesterday, but there were still plenty of odds and ends left to round-up.

So gather round, children, and allow me to tell you the tale of the future Disney has in store for all of us. As a wise man once said, we are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.

Three Men and a Baby, a 1987 film that was a remake of the French film Trois hommes et un couffin, is getting a remake from the folks at Disney. Disney describes it as a "modern take on the hilarious '80s comedy," and adds that it will star Zac Efron. Disney doesn't specify who he's playing, so I'm just going to go ahead and assume he's playing the baby. In the '87 film, three bachelor roommates accidentally get stuck with a baby, and hilarity ensues. Also, there's a subplot about drug smuggling for some reason. Anyway, the new Three Men and a Baby is headed to Disney+ in 2022.

This isn't one project, it's three. Disney will be making three films inspired by the true stories of Chris Paul, a basketball player for the Phoenix Suns; Giannis Antetokounmpo, a basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks; and Keanon Lowe, the "Oregon football star who became a hero off the field when he disarmed a student who brought a gun to Parkrose High School." Here's the part where I tell you I really don't follow sports, at all, so I've never heard of any of these gentlemen before. But I'm sure there are plenty of people who are interested in seeing these titles whenever they arrive on Disney+.

How's this for a synopsis: in Flora and Ulysses, "A cynical young comic book fan and her superpowered squirrel sidekick team up." The upcoming Disney+ film (it drops on February 19) is based on the book by writer Kate DiCamillo and illustrator K.G. Campbell, and comes from director Lena Khan. And hey, Alyson Hannigan is in the movie! That's something!

The Cheaper by the Dozen series is getting a reimagining from Blackish producer Kenya Barris. The film "centers on a blended family of 12, navigating a hectic home life and their family business," and Gabrielle Union is set to star. The original Cheaper by the Dozen starred Clifton Webb and opened in 1950. It was remade with Steven Martin in 2003. This latest version arrives in 2022 on Disney+.

Remember the live-action Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies? Well, they're moving to Disney+...in animated form. Rather than keep the live-action series going, Disney is instead making an all-new animated Wimpy Kid film for 2021 on, you guessed it, Disney+. The films are based on the book series that take the form of "journals of the main character, Greg Heffley. Befitting a teen's diary, the books are filled with simple drawings of Greg's daily adventures."

Quick, without looking it up – how many Ice Age movies are there? If you guessed 10,000, you are correct. And here is another one – The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild. The film features "prankster possum brothers Crash and Eddie, and swashbuckling weasel Buck." Buck is voiced by Simon Pegg. But I'm sure you already knew that, reader, because Ice Age is an important series that we all know and love and cherish. Look for this thing in 2022 on Disney+. At this point, I'm pretty sure the Ice Age franchise has lasted longer than the actual Ice Age (please don't look this up to correct me). 

Another live-action series getting an animated reboot: Night at the Museum. Shawn Levy, who helmed the live-action series, is producing. There is next to no info about this, but the films involve Ben Stiller as a security guard who is haunted by the ghosts of history! Spooky! Disney+ will invite you into the museum in 2021.

Jungle Cruise, the first Disney movie from Orphan and The Shallows director Jaume Collet-Serra, was supposed to open in October of 2019. Then it got moved to July 24, 2020 – only to be pushed again due to the coronavirus pandemic. It's now set to open on July 21, 2021. This isn't news, we knew this already, but Disney still felt the need to remind us. Or perhaps they wanted to drive home the fact that the film is sticking with its theatrical plan and not headed to Disney+. The movie, based on the theme park attraction, stars Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti.

As previously reported, Barry Jenkins is making a follow-up to the "live-action" remake of The Lion King. Initially, it was rumored to be a sequel, but since then we've learned it's a prequel. And other reports indicate the prequel follows Mufasa in his early days. Beyond that, well, we don't know much. But Hans Zimmer, Pharrell Williams, and Jenkins' go-to composer Nicholas Britell are all working on the music. So there's that.

Speaking of live-action remakes, we already knew that a live-action Little Mermaid was on the way. And we already knew who was starring in it. But Disney went ahead and made it official: Halle Bailey is Ariel, Daveed Diggs is Sebastian, Javier Bardem is King Triton, Jacob Tremblay is Flounder, Melissa McCarthy is Ursula, Jonah Hauer-King is Prince Eric, and Awkwafina is Scuttle. There you have it. Rob Marshall is directing, and the film will feature music from the original movie, and new music by Alen Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Production on the film was delayed due to the pandemic, but during the presentation yesterday,  CEO Bob Chapek said all postponed films had started shooting again.

Of all the announcements yesterday, I'll confess this was the one I got the biggest kick out of. Not because I particularly care about characters Chip and Dale, but because the idea of rebooting them with the voices of John Mulaney and Andy Samberg is very, very funny. The new Chip N' Dale: Rescue Rangers will be a live-action-animated hybrid film directed by Akiva Schaffer. It's headed to Disney+.

We got our first look, of sorts, at Robert Zemeckis' live-action Pinocchio. It's been rumored for a while now that the film would reunite Zemeckis and Tom Hanks, and sure enough, it looks like it is. Hanks is playing Gepetto. And the film is headed to Disney+. I'm sure someone, somewhere, is excited about this, but based on the last few years of Zemeckis' career, I'm not.

One of Disney's all-time classics is coming to #DisneyPlus with the new live-action retelling of Pinocchio, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Robert Zemeckis. ✨ pic.twitter.com/44bHbFRhMe

— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) December 11, 2020

David Lowery's Pete's Dragon was the only film in the recent "live-action remake" trend that Disney is all-in on that I enjoyed, so I am marginally excited for Peter Pan and Wendy, another live-action remake headed to Disney+. Lowery will direct Jude Law as Captain Hook and Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell.

Peter Pan & Wendy will be flying to #DisneyPlus. David Lowery directs an amazing cast including @YaraShahidi in the role of Tinker Bell and Jude Law as Captain Hook. 🧚🪝 pic.twitter.com/U8tWoxxSOk

— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) December 11, 2020

The long-gestating Enchanted sequel, Disenchanted, is still happening! Disney swears! And they're bringing it Disney+! And Amy Adams is back! There's still no release date, though. So you'll just have to keep waiting. In the original film (which, oddly enough, currently isn't on Disney+), "In the fairy-tale land of Andalasia, pretty young Giselle frolics with her woodland pals, and falls in love with the handsome Prince Edward, but when Giselle arrives at the castle to marry her Prince Charming, his evil stepmother sends the princess-to-be to a place where there are `no happy ever afters': New York City. Cynical divorce lawyer Robert comes to her rescue, but can Giselle find her way back to her true love?"

Back in 2018, I wrote up a story about Sister Act 3 being in development at Disney+. At the time, Whoopi Goldberg, star of the original two films, wasn't involved. But now Disney+ says she is, and that the film is being produced by Tyler Perry, and that it's headed to Disney+. In the original, Goldberg played a lounge singer who witnesses a murder and goes into hiding in a convent. And then she teaches all the nuns to sing and have fun. It's a cute, harmless movie..

Finally, here's Iwájú. Disney Animation teamed with Pan-African entertainment company Kugali to create an "all-new, science fiction series coming to Disney+ in 2022." Per Deadline, the series will have "deep themes of class, innocence and challenging the status quo," and Walt Disney Animation Studios' chief creative officer Jennifer Lee added that the series will also "bring African stories created by African artist to the world, highlighting the diversity of cultures, histories and voices across the continent."