LIVE ACTION LILO AND STITCH LION KING PREQUEL MOVIE Announcement Discussions

Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” movie is beginning to shape up with the casting of Zach Galifianakis. Galifianakis takes on an undisclosed role in the new movie, which is planned for release on Disney+. Dean Fleischer Camp — whose “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” is nominated for best animated feature at the upcoming 95th Academy Awards — is directing the adaptation, from a script by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright. The live-action movie follows the hit 2002 animated family film, which grossed $273 million at the global box office. Written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, “Lilo & Stitch” centers on 6-year-old Lilo and her teenage sister Nani, who live in Hawaii and adopt an adorable — though sometimes a little destructive — blue extraterrestrial creature nicknamed Stitch. While the movie featured catchy songs, like “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride,” it also introduced audiences to the concept of ohana, which means family — and as Stitch instills in the group, “family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.” Disney announced new movies and revealed more details of upcoming films, with Mufasa: The Lion King and Peter Pan and Wendy headlining its Disney and Pixar Studios panel Friday afternoon at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California. Mufasa: The Lion King will tell the story of Simba's father, who was orphaned as a lion cub. The origin story will be told in two timeframes by Rafiki and Timon and Pumbaa, Disney said at D23. Peter Pan and Wendy, previously announced but not in any detail, will treat the two characters as "equals," Disney said Friday. It stars Jude Law as Captain Hook. "We got to mine their backstory a little more," Law said at D23, suggesting that Hook and Pan were once friends. He also suggested that he's playing "the good guy." The movie will stream in 2023 on Disney Plus.