James Ponsoldt‘s career has revolved around making a big noise with small scale pictures. He broke through with the back-to-back double whammy of layered, intimate dramedies “Smashed” and “The Spectacular Now,” and followed up with the underrated David Foster Wallace road trip flick “The End Of The Tour.” Those films were each intensely character based, but it seems the director is eager to try some new things. In addition to jumping to TV to direct two episodes of the acclaimed Netflix series “Master Of None,” he recently wrapped the sci-fi thriller “The Circle” starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson. Now he’s taking on his biggest project yet.
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THR reports that Ponsoldt is headed to Disney to write, produce, and direct “Wild City.” Rather than a remake or reimagining of an existing property which tends to be the fashion these days at the studio, the film will be an original concept from Ponsoldt, a live action/CGI movie about wild animals in Los Angeles. No other details have yet been revealed, but it’s hard not to think of “Zootopia” with that description.
Disney’s hiring of indie talent isn’t new, with the studio tapping Alex Ross Perry to pen “Winnie The Pooh” and set to release David Lowery‘s surprisingly lovely “Pete’s Dragon” next week. And as proven by the latter film, the studio isn’t afraid to put its confidence in a filmmaker with a distinct vision. So we’ll be pretty excited to see what Ponsoldt is conjuring over at the mouse house.