Joel Fry has joined the cast of Disney’s upcoming live-action film, Cruella. While it’s true the Mouse House has focused more and more on re-imagining its animated classics in live-action over the past decade, they’ve really been doing it as far back as the 1990s. Specifically, in 1996, the studio released a live-action 101 Dalmatians retelling that cast Glenn Close as the fur-loving fashion designer Cruella de Vil, along with Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams as her bumbling goons Jasper and Horace.
Disney is once again returning to the 101 Dalmatians well for Cruella, a live-action prequel starring Emma Stone as a young Cruella – back when she was a department store worker and wannabe fashion designer known as Estella. The project reportedly takes place in ’70s London and follows Estella as she sets out to recover a locket that her mother left her before she passed away, but was stolen by a cruel, wealthy individual known as the Baroness (Emma Thompson).
According to Variety, Fry is set to play Jasper in Cruella, with Paul Walter Hauser (I, Tonya) costarring as Horace. It was previously reported that Hauser is playing Roger from 101 Dalmatians, but it makes more sense for him to be portraying Jasper’s companion (seeing as, prior to 101 Dalmatians, Roger and Cruella had never met one another). Either way, the pair are set to join Stone and Thompson when the film begins production this fall for a December 2020 release date.
Fry is probably most widely known for his recurring role as the former slave trader Hizdahr zo Loraq on Game of Thrones. He’s also delivered memorable supporting turns in recent movies like Paddington 2 and Yesterday (where he played protagonist Jack’s ne’er-do-well friend and roadie, Rocky). He’s a good fit for the Jasper character – who, like Horace, is far from a master criminal and tends to mess up Cruella’s schemes more than he pulls them off. Presumably, Cruella the movie will explain how he and Estella came into one another’s lives in the first place. He and Horace might well be working for the Baroness when the film picks up, at that.
On a related note – it will be interesting to see how Cruella re-imagines its namesake (or, rather, Estella). Disney’s live-action retellings have begun to increasingly paint their villains in a more complicated light than the original animated movies did, with Maleficent being the best example. The latter went so far as to make the Horned Fairy a traumatized character who ultimately redeems herself for her wicked deeds, so it’s possible Cruella will attempt a similar feat. Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) and writers Tony McNamara (The Favourite) and Dana Fox (Isn’t It Romantic) have all done strong work telling stories about women who aren’t clear-cut bad guys in the past, so that bodes well for their involvement here.
