Fans of “The Nutcracker” may be interested in this bit of news; according to The Hollywood Reporter, a live-action film based on “The Nutcracker” will be in the works soon.
According to the article, the film, titled “The Nutcracker,” will be about a 12-year-old girl, who, along with her brother and sister, receive Christmas presents from their eccentric clockmaker-inventor godfather. One of the toys, the Nutcracker, becomes part of an adventure the girl has as the Nutcracker battles the seven-headed Mouse King. The movie will have themes of beauty and ugliness.
John Mann and Jon Gunn will be behind the film and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” producers Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark will produce this film.
This is not the first time the popular story has been brought to screen; the ballet itself has been put to film numerous times, including 1993’s “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” (my favorite one) “The Nutcracker” starring Macauley Culkin as the Prince/the Nutcracker/Drosselmeier’s nephew, 1977’s “The Nutcracker” starring Mikhail Baryshnikov as the Prince/the Nutcracker and Gelsey Kirkland as Clara. From the article, it sounds like no ballet will be in this re-envisioning of the story, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.