Culture – 9 hours ago

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Questlove is extending his work in film. A new Deadline report shares that The Roots member has been tapped to direct a live-action/hybrid adaptation of Walt Disney Studios classic The Aristocats. Questlove, legal name Ahmir Thompson, will also executive produce and oversee music for the film, with the script being written by Will Gluck and Keith Bunin.

The Aristocats is a remake of the 1970 animated musical comedy film starring voice actors Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Hermione Baddeley, Dean Clark, and more. The movie, which has a total worldwide lifetime box office gross of $191 million, features classic songs “Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat” and “Scales and Arpeggios.” The Artistocats is “about a family of Parisian felines who learn they are set to inherit a fortune from their owner.” “When the owner’s jealous butler kidnaps them and leaves them in the country, they must team up with a smooth-talking tomcat to try to make it back home before it’s too late,” reads its synopsis per Deadline.

Thompson made his splash into directing with 2021 music documentary Summer of Soul, about the 1969 Harlem Cultural festival. One year after premiering at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Summer of Soul would go on to receive the Oscar for Best Documentary. Featured prominently in Summer of Soul is Sly and the Family Stone frontman, Sly Stone, who will release a memoir on Thompson’s new book imprint AUWA Books later this year.