Hey folks, Harry here... I love my Blu Ray of ALADDIN, it took a while for it to exist, but that Disney animated film is one of my absolute favorites. However, it is not my favorite telling of the tale, which goes to Alexander Korda's THIEF OF BAGDAD - with Rex Ingram as the Genie and Sabu as Aladdin and Conrad Veidt as the Jafar character. I even have Korda branded THEIF OF BAGDAD jewelry - and a vintage Aladdin doll from that 1940 film. Korda was one of the early advocates for merchandizing cinema. A very ahead of his time filmmaker. Now Disney has Guy Ritchie doing a remake of their Disney animated classic. I hope it means the songs and the zany musical wildness of the animated tale.
Today, Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter, announced that Marwan Kenzari will be playing the role of JAFAR. It's a helluva showy role. Hopefully it will feature the best man into snake transformation since James Earl Jones' Thulsa Doom transformation in CONAN THE BARBARIAN - the one that counts. Kenzari is terrific in a film called WOLF, he's a Dutch-Tunisian actor, who won the Best Actor award at the Nederlands Film Festival for the role in WOLF. It's a martial arts flick that really and truly kicks much ass. I hear good things about his turn in Kenneth Branagh's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, which is coming this fall.
Nasim Pedrad, of Saturday Night Live fame, has joined as Princess Jasmine's handmaiden and confidant... This is a new character.
Both of these new additions join Will Smith as The Genie and Mena Massoud as the titular ALADDIN and Naomi Scott (Pink Ranger) as Jasmine. If screenwriter John August takes a page from the brilliant Bill Condon adaptation of the Disney BEAUTY AND THE BEAST - they'll be embellishing the story with additional material from the classic ONE THOUSAND AND ONE ARABIAN NIGHTS. I've loved those stories since Father Geek handed me the 1909 edition with the Maxfield Parrish plates. The tales are brilliant, and the Parrish illustrations would be a great basis for the look of a live action film. If they could capture Parrish's color palatte, this would be an amazing film. The same illustrations that I've placed through this article. I have immense high hopes for this film, hope Guy Ritchie has his head on right for the film.
Keep it cool,
Harry
