Nearly one year after picking up the script in a competitive bidding situation, Disney is moving forward with their live-action adventure The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. The Hollywood Reporter has word that the studio has hired Lasse Hallström to direct from the script by Ashleigh Powell. The project is adapted from the classic ballet by Peter Tchaikovsky, and the companion story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann.

The classic tale follows a young girl named Clara, who receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather on Christmas Eve. After the clock strikes midnight, she is transported to a magical fantasy world, where she find herself caught in the middle of a war between gingerbread soldiers and a mouse army. Ashleigh Powell spent two years developing the script before it was picked up by Disney last year.

Universal Pictures and New Line Cinema have previously tried to bring Nutcracker stories to life over the past few years, but none of them have made it out of development quite yet. Adam Shankman was set to direct New Line's The Nutcracker, from a script by Darren Lemke (Goosebumps), and Universal was developing their own project with Peter Chernin's Chernin Entertainment. There has been no movement on either project for the past few years. In 2010, a live action rendition entitled The Nutcracker in 3D hit theaters, starring Elle Fanning and Nathan Lane, but it tanked at the box office. The movie only took in $195,459 domestically and $16.1 million worldwide, from a $90 million budget.

Mark Gordon is producing The Nutcracker and the Four Realms with Lindy Goldstein serving as executive producer. Samuel Dickerman and Allison Erlikhman are overseeing the project for Disney, while Sara Smith is overseeing for The Mark Gordon Co. It isn't known when production may begin at this time.

Lasse Hallström most recently directed Disney's The Hundred-Foot Journey. His next movie in theaters will be A Dog's Purpose, starring Britt Robertson and Bradley Cooper, and he is also attached to direct Tom's Dad, starring Will Ferrell. Are you looking forward to a live-action Nutcracker movie?