Aladdin: First image of Will Smith’s Genie in live-action Disney remake released
'Whenever you’re doing things that are iconic, it’s always terrifying,' Smith said
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Your support makes all the difference.Disney has offered the world a first look at its upcoming live-action remake of Aladdin starring Will Smith.
Directed by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels filmmaker Guy Ritchie, the film sees Smith play the Genie, a role originally voiced by Robin Williams.
However, as opposed to being a blue cloud, Smith’s version of the iconic character will take the form of a human and wear blue robes.
Entertainment Weekly has unveiled the first batch of images from the film, which you can see below.
“Whenever you’re doing things that are iconic, it’s always terrifying,” Smith told EW. “The question is always: Where was there meat left on the bone? Robin didn’t leave a lot of meat on the bone with the character.”
However, after acknowledging that Williams “infused the character with a timeless version of himself,” Smith decided he would do the same.
“I started to feel confident that I could deliver something that was an homage to Robin Williams but was musically different,” he said. “Just the flavour of the character would be different enough and unique enough that it would be in a different lane, versus trying to compete.”
While the pictures reveal the human form of the Genie, there will also be a blue floating lamp version of the character in the film. Ritchie is reportedly yet to complete the film's visual effects.
“I wanted a muscular 1970s dad,” the director said of the floating form. “He was big enough to feel like a force — not so muscular that he looked like he was counting his calories, but formidable enough to look like you knew when he was in the room.”
Aladdin stars Marwan Kenzari as Jafar, Naomi Scott as Jasmine and Mena Massoud as the eponymous character. A teaser was released for the film earlier this year.
It reaches cinemas on 24 May 2019.
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