Tom McCarthy has been tasked with re-writing the script for Disney's upcoming live-action film 'Christopher Robin'.

The 50-year-old writer-and-director - who won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar last year with Josh Singer for journalism drama movie 'Spotlight' - has been hired to restructure the story of the fantasy film, according to The Tracking Board.

McCarthy's attachment to the project comes just three months after Finding Neverland's Marc Forster was brought in to direct the project.

The Christopher Robin character was created by late English author A.A. Milne and featured in his two books 'Winnie-the-Pooh' from 1926 and 'The House at Pooh Corner' from 1928 - inspired by his son and his teddy bear - with both tomes focusing on the boy's adventures with lovable talking bear Pooh and the other animals of the Hundred Acre Wood.

The new film will focus on Christopher as a workaholic adult who struggles to make any time for his family until Pooh bear surprisingly re-enters his life.

Brigham Taylor - who co-produced Disney's 2016 remake of 'The Jungle Book' - is producing the film and Alex Ross Perry has been writing the first draft of the screenplay since he joined the project back in November.

Disney licensed the rights to Winnie-the-Pooh in 1961 and the honey-loving bear and his friends, including Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger, have featured in various TV shows and four animated feature films; 'The Tigger Movie', 'Piglet's Big Movie', 'Pooh's Heffalump Movie' and 'Winnie the Pooh'.