EXCLUSIVE: Disney is in development on live-action family-adventure movie Knights, set in the European Middle Ages.

We understand the original pic will follow a headstrong young woman who joins a knight on his quest to destroy a world-threatening artefact before it falls into the wrong hands. The screenplay is being worked on by Matt Orton, who scripted 2018 MGM feature Operation Finale, starring Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley and Mélanie Laurent.

This one, still in early development, is being shepherded by the Disney live-action team with execs Jessica Virtue and Chaz Salembier overseeing. We understand it is likely to be a theatrical project rather than a Disney+ title.

Production VP Virtue is among the most senior women in the studio’s live-action team and has worked on upcoming movies including the big-budget reboot of Mulan with Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen, Jett Li, Jason Scott Lee and Li Gong; Cruella with Emma Stone; Disney+ pic Togo; and Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid.

Salembier, who has been at the studio since 2015, has worked on movies including Disney+ launch title Lady and the Tramp and musical-mashup development project Cyrano the Moor, which has David Oyelowo attached.

Other Medieval-themed projects Disney has in the works include the Sword in the Stone reboot with director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and Game of Thrones scribe Bryan Cogman, and The Merlin Saga, which has Ridley Scott attached.

Orton is repped by WME, Grandview and The Agency.