Director Kenneth Branagh is reportedly in "very early talks" with Emma Watson about starring in Cinderella. Though Branagh is known for his Shakespearean work, he starred with Watson in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Gilderoy Lockhart and My Week With Marilyn as Sir Laurence Olivier.
Disney also considered a few lesser-known young actresses, but none of them stuck. Watson doesn't have the part just yet, though. Apparently she thought about playing Cinderella in 2009, but in a musical written and directed by Marilyn Manson. Disney's new version may be darker than their 1950 animated film, but surely it won't be that dark!
Cate Blanchett will play Cinderella's evil stepmother. She follows Julia Roberts (Mirror, Mirror), Charlize Theron (Snow White and the Huntsman), and Angelina Jolie (Disney's upcoming Maleficent) in the recent trend of beautiful leading ladies taking on fairy tale villainesses.
The current iteration of the script was written by Chris Weitz (About a Boy); Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) is producing. We would hope that an actress like Watson would give the story a more modern (read: feminist) undertone.
It seems fairy tale adaptations are the new superhero movies—are you sick of them yet or do you want to see more?
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[via Variety]
