Tim Burton to remake Hunchback

Los Angeles – Tim Burton and Josh Brolin are to team up for a big screen remake of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The Alice in Wonderland director and the actor-and-producer are working with Warner Bros to develop the project, with a script based on the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo, Hunchback.

It tells the story of Quasimodo, a deformed and hunchbacked bell-ringer of the Norte Dame cathedral in Paris, France, who tragically falls in love with a beautiful gypsy called Esmerelda.

Burton won't commit

The book was first turned into a film for 1905's Esmeralda, although the last major adaptations were in 1997, with an animated Disney movie and a TV action picture starring Mandy Patinkin and Salma Hayek.

The project is being spearheaded by Brolin - who would produce as well as star - and while Burton is keen to get involved, he won't commit until he sees the final script according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Kieran and Michele Mulroney, who wrote the upcoming Sherlock Holmes sequel, which re-unites Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as the sleuth team, are currently working on the script.