Sam Mendes in Talks to Direct Disney's Live-Action James and the Giant Peach

English stage and film director Sam Mendes is reportedly in "very early" negotiations with Disney to helm a live-action film version of James and the Giant Peach. The project comes 20 years after Walt Disney Pictures' 1996 animated film, based on the Roald Dahl novel.

James and the Giant Peach joins a growing field of live-action adaptation projects by Disney, which have included Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast (set for a March 2017 release), and The Little Mermaid, which has tapped Broadway talents Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda for its development.

In film, Mendes is best known for his Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning direction of American Beauty as well as his work on the last two James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre. On Broadway, Mendes directed the 1998 Tony-winning revival of Cabaret as Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse and also helmed the 2003 revival of Gypsy, starring Bernadette Peters.