Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers Movie Gets a Director

Disney’s half-animated, half-live-action Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers movie will be directed by Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer, it was learned Friday (via THR).

David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, who produced two Muppets movies and the live-action Beauty and the Beast for Disney, will produce. THR notes it’s not yet clear if the project will head to theaters or Disney+, the coming streaming service that will count the live-action Lady and the Tramp among its offerings.

THR describes the project as “meta, something self-referential and cool,” and not an origin or detective agency story. Barry Schwarts penned its script.

The pair of mischievous chipmunk brothers most famously pestered Mickey Mouse’s dog, Pluto, and the easily flustered Donald Duck in a series of Walt Disney-produced animated shorts before headlining their own late-’80s animated series, Rescue Rangers, which re-imagined the duo as detectives working alongside Gadget, Zipper, and Monterey Jack. During their adventures, the team would often take on a variety of villains, including mobster Fat Cat and human scientist Norton Nimnul.

As part of the Lonely Island trio with cohorts Andy Samberg and Jorma Tacoma, Schaffer scripted numerous digital shorts for Saturday Night Live, as well as the Judd Apatow-produced Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which Schaffer directed with Taccone. Schaffer has also directed episodes of Samberg-led TV comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Netflix’s I Think You Should Leave with Tom Robinson.

Disney’s original cherished Rescue Rangers is expected to land among the thousands of hours of programming available on Disney+ when that service launches November 12. In its first year, the service will boast a reported 7,500 episodes of television and 500 movies, both new and old.

In addition to newly produced Disney+ exclusive series Marvel’s What If…?, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, WandaVision, The Mandalorian, and Monsters at Work, catalogue titles will include animated series DuckTales, Goof Troop, The Simpsons, and Mickey Mouse Shorts.