Questlove to Direct Remake of Disney’s The Aristocats, a Childhood Favorite

Disney is going hip-hop!

According to Deadline, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is slated to direct the remake of the 1970 Disney movie The Aristocats.

The news comes more than a year after Questlove took home an Oscar for Best Documentary for 2021’s Summer of Soul.

Sources told Deadline that the project will be a live-action/hybrid reimagining for Walt Disney Studios. Questlove will also serve as executive producer while overseeing the music for the film. The script was written by Will Gluck and Keith Bunin. Tarik “Black Thought” Trotter, Shawn Gee, and Zarah Zohlman will executive produce on behalf of Two One Five Entertainment.

Questlove gave a statement to Pitchfork regarding the upcoming project:

“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. 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. 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.”

This news comes after the announcement of Questlove’s latest business venture, AUWA Books, which will publish fiction and nonfiction on various topics. The Roots mainstay will serve as the imprint’s publisher and editor-in-chief.

The first book, a memoir by reclusive funk-rock giant Sly Stone, entitled Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), will be released October 17.