Colman Domingo is in talks to co-write an original live-action film centered on Princess Tiana, the protagonist of Disney’s 2009 animated feature “The Princess and the Frog,” according to industry reporting Friday. The project is being framed as a spinoff that expands Tiana’s world rather than a direct remake, and no deals have closed for Domingo or his writing partner.
Domingo, an Emmy and Oscar nominee, would pen the script alongside Robert O’Hara, the Tony-nominated playwright and director behind “Slave Play.” Both men bring theater pedigrees heavier on stagecraft than blockbuster screenwriting credits, a pairing that suggests Disney wants a story with its own voice rather than a beat-for-beat translation of the original film.
“The Princess and the Frog” followed Tiana, a New Orleans waitress saving toward her own restaurant, after a kiss transformed her and a cursed prince into frogs. Anika Noni Rose voiced the character. The film, Disney’s last major production using hand-drawn animation before the studio shifted fully to computer graphics, earned $267 million worldwide.
Disney has kept Tiana in circulation through other means. Disneyland and Walt Disney World replaced the Splash Mountain ride with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, set after the events of the film, and the studio had developed an animated Disney+ series titled “Tiana” before shelving it.
The live-action pitch surfaces days after “Moana” opened to a sluggish start at the box office, the latest sign that Disney’s run of animation-to-live-action conversions has grown unpredictable. “Lilo & Stitch” pulled in a record $183 million over its four-day domestic opening last year and crossed $1 billion globally, while “Snow White” opened to just $42.2 million and struggled to find an audience. The Tiana project’s spinoff structure mirrors another film in Disney’s pipeline, “Gaston,” which similarly builds a new story around a “Beauty and the Beast” character rather than remaking the source material scene for scene.
Domingo has had a busy year on screen, picking up two Emmy nominations this cycle for his work on “Euphoria” and “The Four Seasons.” Reflecting on his career trajectory earlier this year, he described entering what he called an “incredible harvest period” after years of laying groundwork as an actor and writer.
