First Look: Angelina Jolie as Maleficent
To celebrate the commencement of filming, Disney has dropped the first official image of star Angelina Jolie as the wicked sorceress.
Walt Disney Pictures have announced that production began last Wednesday, June 13th on "Maleficent", the big blockbuster movie that thrusts Disney's big nemesis into a place she's never been before... a Hollywood leading lady. To celebrate the commencement of filming, the studio also dropped the first official image of star Angelina Jolie from the movie. Once again with these fairytale re-imaginings, it is said we are getting "the untold story" of this saga and the press release I've just received calls her "Disney's most beloved villain" suggesting we will get a much more sympathetic look at the bitch who made Sleeping Beauty's life hell in the 1959 classic. She is the self proclaimed "Mistress of All Evil" and in the Disney Parks she is the "big bad" wicked sorceress who crosses over into other stories but like villains, she was good once. Maleficent basically tells the story of how a series of unfortunate events hardened her heart and drove her to curse the baby, Princess Aurora to "prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die" before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday. The explanation for this will be much deeper than in the original animated film. Perhaps, or most likely actually, the movie will setup a "Sleeping Beauty" sequel and it may even become the anchor for a mini-Marvel/Avengers like universe for Disney as they own all these characters and makes sense to re-churn out their stories with cross-overs, etc. They have a real chance of making it work too with a great choice in Jolie starring (the movie was written purely for her and it is truly hard to see anyone else playing this character) and after the showy efforts from Charlize Theron and Julia Roberts in the two Snow White movies this year, we can't wait to see what Jolie does with this. Initially setup by Disney for Tim Burton to try and recapture the billion dollar Alice in Wonderland success, Maleficent is also based on a Linda Woolverton screenplay, the writer who wrote the 2010 movie that was a kind of sequel to the Lewis Carroll tale. After Burton turned the project down, the director's search landed with first time helmer Robert Stromberg, a veteran production designer who has worked on Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean movies, The Aviator, Pans Labyrinth and so many more diverse pictures in his long career. Interestingly he also worked on Disneys forthcoming Oz The Great and Powerful and on Alice in Wonderland almost as if Disney have manufactured him specifically for this film. Co-starring in the film are Sharlto Copley (District 9), Elle Fanning (Super 8), Sam Riley (On the Road), Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), Miranda Richardson (The Hours), Juno Temple (Atonement) and Lesley Manville (Secrets & Lies). Maleficent is coming March 14th, 2013