18 years after the original film came out, “Lilo & Stitch” is set to get a live-action remake taking the Hawaiian-set film to the real world.
According to a report from Variety, “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu is set to direct the film with no actors or screenwriters yet attached to the film. It is also unknown at this time whether or not the film be released in theaters or digitally through Disney+.
The original film follows a young Hawaiian girl named Lilo, voiced by Daveigh Chase, who lives with her teenage sister Nani, voiced by Tia Carrere, after the death of her parents. Unknown to her, a rogue creation called Experiment 626, voiced by the film’s director Chris Sanders, crash lands in Hawaii and ends up in a pet shop. While looking for a pet, Lilo adopts Experiment 626 naming him Stitch. The two soon begin to grow a bond but face separation as Stitch’s creator Jumba, voiced by David Ogden Stiers, and Galactic Federation agent Pleakley, voiced by Kevin McDonald, are tasked with finding him.
With the choice of adapting “Lilo & Stitch” to live action, it marks the first Disney film from the 2000s to be give the treatment with most films remade coming from anywhere between the 1950s and 1990s. “Lilo & Stitch” is also one of the biggest successes for Disney in this era spawning three direct-to-DVD sequels, a TV series that lasted two seasons and two separate Japanese and Chinese animes.
Though there hasn’t been any casting announcements given yet, one of the most obvious castings would have to be Auli’i Cravalho, the voice actress of Disney Princess Moana in the film “Moana,” in the role of Nani.
Cravalho was born on Hawaii to a Native Hawaiian mother and a father of Portuguese, Chinese, Irish and Puerto Rican descent. She speaks Hawaiian, she is around the right age to play Nani and she has already worked with Disney for both “Moana” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet.”
The film has not been given an estimated release date yet but will more than likely be coming sometime in the 2020s.
