Prince Charming next in line for live-action Disney movie

Prince Charming is ready for his close-up.

The gallant fairy-tale stock character is the focus of new a script by Matt Fogel, which Walt Disney Pictures has acquired and is developing as a live-action movie. A person familiar with the project who asked not to be identified confirmed the news to The Times. The Hollywood Reporter first reported the deal.

The Prince Charming movie is in the early stages and does not have a director, cast or release date attached, and plot details are being kept under wraps. According to Variety, the story is told from the perspective of the prince’s brother who never lived up to the family name.

The project is the latest case of Disney mining fairy-tale lore and its own back catalog of animated movies for live-action updates. So far the strategy has proved lucrative, with films such as “Alice in Wonderland,” “Maleficent” and “Cinderella” all scoring at the box office. Others in the works include “Beauty and the Beast,” “Winnie the Pooh,” “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo” and “Mulan.”

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The trope of the charming prince — a version of which appears in the tales of “Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Snow White,” among others — has also proven ripe for commentary and subversion in contemporary works such as “Shrek 2” and the big-screen adaptation of “Into the Woods.” (A prince played by Chris Pine in the latter film tells Anna Kendrick’s Cinderella, “I was raised to be charming, not sincere.”)

Fogel, meanwhile, is a relative newcomer who previously co-wrote “Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son” and served as the assistant to Phil Lord and Chris Miller on “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”

David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Tripp Vinson are producing the Prince Charming movie.

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