Melissa McCarthy will play Tinker Bell in a live action movie about the mischievous fairy first introduced by JM Barrie in Peter Pan, reports Deadline.
The film is being billed as a comedy adventure. Its screenplay is being written by Bad Neighbours’ Nicholas Stoller, with Night of the Museum’s Shawn Levy set to direct. It will be set up at 20th Century Fox, despite Barrie’s tiny creation having been a stalwart of Disney iconography for more than 60 years.
Tinker Bell was first introduced in Barrie’s 1904 play Peter Pan and its 1911 novelisation Peter and Wendy. Disney has adopted the character as its own since the classic 1953 animated version of Peter Pan, but does not own the rights as Barrie’s book went out of copyright in the US in the early part of this century.
Originally depicted in the theatre with a darting light created by a small off stage hand mirror, Tinker Bell remained voiceless in the 1953 Disney film but has since been portrayed by actors such as Julia Roberts (in 1991’s Hook) and Ludivine Sagnier (2003’s Peter Pan).
McCarthy is best known for her supporting roles in Bridesmaids. She also took the lead opposite Sandra Bullock in Paul Feig’s well-received buddy cop comedy The Heat in 2013 and played the title character in this year’s Tammy, which she also co-wrote. Her next film is the Bill Murray Toronto smash St Vincent, out 5 December in the UK.
