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Disney has hired former Game of Thrones scribe Vanessa Taylor to rewrite its live-action ALADDIN (LIVE ACTION) movie, the Tracking Board has exclusively learned.

Guy Ritchie is directing the film, which will star up-and-coming actors Mena Massoud (Jack Ryan) and Naomi Scott (Power Rangers) as Aladdin and Jasmine, and Will Smith as the Genie.

Taylor will be working off a script that John August wrote with Ritchie, who is producing with Dan Lin. Jonathan Eirich will executive produce, while Marc Platt (La La Land) and Chris Montan (Frozen) are both consulting on the movie, which starts production next month in London.

Disney’s live-action Aladdin draws inspiration from both the 1992 animated classic as well as the folktales of The Thousand and One Nights. Like the animated version, Ritchie’s Agrabah will be a vibrant, cosmopolitan city inspired by locations and cultures from the Middle East to India and China.

After locking down their leads, Ritchie and studio will now turn their attention to casting the villainous Jafar and his henchman Iago.

Taylor started out in television, writing for such shows as Alias, Everwood and Jack & Bobby before working on HBO’s Tell Me You Love Me, and later, Game of Thrones. Her first produced feature, Hope Springs, was released in 2012 starring Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, and she has since gone on to write the Divergent movie and Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming film The Shape of Water.

Taylor is represented by ICM Partners and Management 360.

Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief