Questlove to direct new 'live-action/hybrid' adaptation of Disney's 'The Aristocats'
"The Aristocats was how my mom made jazz seem interesting to me back then", The Roots co-founder said in a statement to Pitchfork
Questlove is directing a new adaptation of the Disney film The Aristocats.
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson has been tapped to executive produce and oversee music for the "live-action/hybrid reimaging" of the 1970 animated Disney film, Deadline reports. Questlove's production company, Two One Five, will be working with co-writer Will Gluck's Olive Bridge.
"During those first months of the pandemic back in 2020, I allowed my inner 9-year-old to have a voice he wouldn’ta had back in 1980", The Roots co-founder said in a statement to Pitchfork. "I made space for myself every day to enjoy an hour or two of fun. (Eventually, it turned into more work: books, nightly DJ sets, films. But it started as fun.) What grew out of that, in part, was nightly viewings of old Disney classics from my childhood. The Aristocats was one of them."
He continued: "Having been involved in Soul that year, I was able to see so-called kids’ art with new eyes, was able to connect with a certain feeling. I don’t think I would have been fully able to find inspiration in those movies if I wasn’t forced by circumstance to sit silent. I needed that pause. (Also, full confession, The Aristocats was how my mom made jazz seem interesting to me back then.) There’s nothing more rewarding than continuing down that same creative path, taking a part of my past and making it part of my future."
The original 1970 score was composed by Grammy-and Oscar-nominated writer George Burns, who frequently worked with Disney.
Questlove is also executive producing a new documentary about J Dilla adapted from the Dan Charnas biography, titled Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, The Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm.
Questlove previously directed the Summer Of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised documentary, for which he won the Best Original Documentary Oscar and Best Music Film Grammy in 2022.
