Listen Up Phillip’s Alex Ross Perry to write live-action Winnie The Pooh movie

By Katie Rife | April 2, 2015 | 6:14pm

Aux Features Film

Disney’s live-action remake machine, a device we like to picture as whimsically cobbled together from old potbelly stoves and sentient toasters, has spit out another movie: Deadline reports that the company’s next entry in its ambitious slate of live-action remakes will be A. A. Milne’s Winnie The Pooh. That’s not so surprising—the good-natured bear and his pals, including the hyperactive Tigger and depressive Eeyore, have been popular children’s characters for decades, with TV and movie adaptations reaching as far as the Soviet Union.

No, the unexpected part of this story is the involvement of indie auteur Alex Ross Perry, whose films include The Color Wheel and the critically lauded Listen Up Phillip. Perry will write the screenplay for the film, which reportedly focuses on an adult Christopher Robin’s return to the Hundred Acre Wood; asked by The A.V. Club if this was a belated April Fools’ Day prank, Perry responded simply, “Yes it’s real. Yes, it’s easy to not believe.” No director or release date have been set for the project, although, given Perry’s involvement, we’re betting on Noah Baumbach.