Following the storming success of Sleeping Beauty re-imagining Maleficent in 2014, Disney isn’t wasting any time getting more live-action remakes of its classic animated films onto the big screen. The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast are both on the production line, but next up is director Kenneth Branagh’s whimsical new take on Cinderella.
Branagh’s film was penned by Oscar-nominee Chris Weitz – who’s now working on a Star Wars spinoff for the Disney-owned Lucasfiln – and stars Lily James (Downton Abbey) as the lead and Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) as her Prince Charming. Apparently no one warned Cinderella that Robb Stark has a poor track record with marriages.
From the first trailer it was clear that Cinderella is not going to be a dark and gritty re-imagining of Disney’s animated fairy tale movie. On the contrary, the film looks more like it could fall into the trap of being a bit too twee for some audiences to handle, especially in an age when family fairy tale films generally come with some kind of twist or new spin on the story, as Maleficent did.
Branagh’s version of the story does vary from Disney’s original film in a few respects, such as having Cinderella and Prince Charming meet before the night of the ball so that they can spend more than five minutes together before deciding that they’re in love. Based on what’s shown in the new TV trailer for Cinderella, however, it looks like this latest adaptation will be pretty faithful to the well-known beats of the classic fairy tale.
Cinderella also stars Cate Blanchett as cruel stepmother Lady Tremaine, Helena Bonham-Carter as Cinderella’s fairy godmother, and Sophie McShera and Holliday Grainger as her “ugly” stepsisters. James will be the second big screen Cinderella in the space of just a few short months, since Anna Kendrick also played the character in Disney’s recent adaptation of Broadway musical Into the Woods.
Check out the new trailer for Cinderella and let us know in the comments if you’ve been charmed enough to attend the royal ball this spring.
Cinderella arrives in theaters on March 13th, 2015.
