Disney+ signs Zach Galifianakis (‘The Hangover’) for the remake of ‘Lilo & Stitch’

The live action versions of animated classics continue, as confirmed by the news that indicates that Disney+ has signed Zach Galifianakis (‘The Hangover’) for the remake of ‘Lilo & Stitch’.

Dean Fleischer-Camp, director of ‘Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’ (2021), a stop motion animated film among the 2023 Oscar nominees, will be responsible for this live action remake of one of Disney’s best films from animation that will have a direct premiere on Disney +.

‘Lilo & Stitch’ (Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders, 2002), the original film, introduced us to Lilo, a little Hawaiian who adopts what she thinks is a kind of dog, Stitch, a crazy genetic experiment from another galaxy . The innocence of the girl will end up permeating the heart of the animal, which will finally find a home. One of Disney’s most underrated films at the time, it ended up gathering a large group of fans who made the title count. by Dean DeBlois, a director who continued his career with the stupendous saga ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, the first installment of which he once again co-directed with Chris Sanders.

While looking for actresses to play Lilo and her older sister, this first casting of Zach Galifianakis as the actor behind the computer-generated version of Lieutenant Pleakley, a Galactic Federation worker who acts as an expert on planet Earth, when in reality he knows nothing. The interpreter will thus work again with the studio, whose last collaboration was in ‘A fold in time’ (Ava DuVernay, 2018).

Galifianakis has been on American television and stages since the mid-1990s.. The comedian, with small roles in titles such as ‘The Seductresses’ (David Mirkin, 2001) and ‘Bubble Boy’ (Blair Hayes, 2001), is the protagonist of the brilliant documentary ‘The Comedians of Comedy’ (Michael Blieden, 2005) with Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn and Maria Bamford.

With his ‘Between two ferns’ becoming one of the greatest hits for the Funny or Die brand, Galifianakis becomes an international star thanks to the success of ‘The Hangover’ (Todd Phillips, 2009), one of the best comedies in film history, and its sequels, ‘The Hangover 2: Now in Thailand!’ (Todd Phillips, 2011) and ‘R3sacón’ (Todd Phillips, 2013).

Already a star, he starred in ‘Salidos de reckonings’ (Todd Phillips, 2010) with Robert Downey Jr. and ‘In the campaign anything goes’ (Jay Roach, 2012) with Will Ferrell, as well as appearing in ‘Birdman or (The unexpected virtue of ignorance)’ (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014) and ‘De-mentesn criminales’ (Jared Hess, 2016).

Luckily for everyone, his career seems to be getting back on track as he has two other movies in the works, ‘The Beanie Bubble’ (Kristin Gore, Damian Kulash, 2023), which will premiere on Apple TV+, ‘Winner’, the new Susanna Fogel film.