It took a little time, but the fairytale movie duck was broken a few weeks back when "Snow White And The Huntsman" proved to be a solid hit. More recent pictures based on fables and legends, like "Red Riding Hood" and "Mirror Mirror," had mostly underperformed, but SWATH proved that there's plenty of gold to be mined from the sub-genre, and many must have breathed a sigh of relief, not least Disney, who have a number of live-action properties based on their animated fairytale classics in the works.
So they've ploughed on ahead with the next of them: "Maleficent," which sees Angelina Jolie play the wicked sorceress who torments Sleeping Beauty in the Disney version of the tale. A one-time Tim Burton project, the film's finally moving ahead with veteran production designer Robert Stromberg at the helm, and with a script by Linda Woolverton ("Alice In Wonderland"). Shooting got underway today, with Disney sending out the first image of Jolie in the film to celebrate the occasion.
As you can see, she looks the part nicely, but then that's hardly a surprise, is it?… We're a little wary to see so many "Alice In Wonderland" veterans involved, but we've heard good things about the script. And the supporting cast, led by Elle Fanning as the narcoleptic pretty-pants, and also including Sharlto Copley, Sam Riley, Juno Temple, Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville and Miranda Richardson, is promising. We'll find out how it works when the film hits theaters on March 14th, 2014 in, as you might imagine, 3D.