Aladdin, Jasmine Roles In Disney’s Upcoming Movie Still Up For Grabs?

Disney’s 1992 movie, “Aladdin," would soon be seen in a live-action adaptation. But the movie's director, Guy Ritchie, has not yet finalised on the actors who would play the lead characters of Aladdin and Jasmine despite months-long search.

Everyone is familiar with the story of the street lad who stumbles upon the magic lamp that produces smoke and a genie when rubbed. The genie helps the street lad, Aladdin, to woo princess Jasmine. However, choosing the actors, who can do justice to the lead roles, is proving more difficult than Ritchie and casting director Randi Hiller may have imagined.

Casting calls for the movie began in March, and Disney was supposed to have picked the actors before July. However, after auditioning more than 2,000 actors — with the assistance of casting agents from London, Egypt, Abu Dhabi and India — the production team has not been able to find the protagonists for the movie.

Read: 'Aladdin' Movie Casting Problems Create Trouble For Director Guy Ritchie

Many actors auditioned multiple times for weeks at the end in London, but none of them came close to the vision that the director has for the feature film. "The test process was a mess," an agent with a client who auditioned told AOL.

Some of the popular choices that emerged for the role of Aladdin are — Dev Patel, 27, and Riz Ahmed, 34; and Naomi Scott, 24, and Tara Sutaria, 21, for the role of Jasmine. However, the production team hinted there were chances the main leads would be newcomers. So, budding actors may still have a chance to feature in the fantasy movie by emailing a photograph and video to ctcastingoffice@gmail.com.

“Big Fish” writer John August has drafted the screenplay for the upcoming movie. It will be produced by Lin Pictures, with Jonathan Eirich as executive producer. Music producer Marc Platt, who is also working on Disney's upcoming “Mary Poppins Returns,” and executive music producer Chris Montan, who has worked on past Disney projects such as “Pocahontas,” “Toy Story,” “Hercules” and “Frozen,” have been roped in for the movie.

Read: Will Smith Eyeing Genie Role In Disney’s ‘Aladdin’

At the time of announcing casting calls, Disney mentioned the actors should be from Middle Eastern region, and between 18 and 25 years of age. Moreover, the lead actors should be able to sing as the movie would be a musical just like Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” starring Emma Watson. Even though dancing skills are not mandatory, it would definitely be a plus.

According to the original brochure — sent out for the purpose of casting calls — rehearsals were supposed to begin in April and the shooting for the movie was supposed to start in July in the United Kingdom, which would have continued till January 2018. However, the rehearsals have not begun yet, and it is not clear if shooting would be postponed.