The Hollywood Reporter reports that Guy Ritchie is in negotiations with Disney to direct the live-action adaptation of its 1992 animated classic Aladdin.

The 1992 animated film had us following Aladdin, a street rat who lives in a large and busy town known a Agrabah alongside his loyal monkey friend Abu. When Princess Jasmine gets tired of being forced to remain in the palace that overlooks the city and  accept a suitor for marriage, she sneaks out to the town where she coincidentally meets Aladdin. Soon enough, the sultan’s advisor Jafar, has Aladdin following him to aid him unknowingly to recover a mysterious lamp from the Cave of Wonders that introduces us to the Genie.

The script has been written by John August, with sources telling THR that it keeps many of the musical elements from the original in this live-action script adaptation. Dan Lin, who was Producer on Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes films, is serving as Producer here for Aladdin under the Lin Pictures banner, with Jonathan Eirich of Lin Pictures will serve as Executive Producer. Disney touts that this live-action adaptation will be an ambitious and non-traditional/non-linear take on the original.

I’m not entirely sold on the idea of Guy Ritchie directing a live-action Aladdin adaptation as it just feels an out of left-field choice of director considering his filmography thus far (from Lock, Stock to Snatch, to the Sherlock Holmes films to The Man From U.N.C.L.E). What is interesting in the report is that it mentions that the studio is still figuring out how it will approach the Genie, which was iconically voiced by Robin Williams in the animated film.