While Mark Wahlberg continues to prod director David O. Russell about The Fighter 2, the director seems to be looking elsewhere for his next project. First Showing reports that Disney is wooing the Academy Award nominee for their live action adaptation of the fairy tale Sleepy Beauty titled Maleficent.
For the uninitiated, Maleficent is the name of one of Disney’s greatest villains, the evil sorceress who cursed Princess Aurora to death in Sleeping Beauty. The new live action take on the classic Disney fairy tale will take a dark turn and proceed from the perspective of the evil sorceress rather than the sleeping beauty.
Angelina Jolie has long been attached to the lead role in Maleficent and, according to the Hollywood Reporter, remains attached even after Tim Burton bailed on the project leaving Disney to seek a new helmer. Coincidentally, David O. Russell has been rumored to be seeking Jolie to co-star with Mark Wahlberg in his adaptation of Matthew Quick‘s bestselling novel The Silver Linings Playbook, another project only in the planning stages.
Take the David O. Russell directing Maleficent rumors with a grain of salt; Russell has been rumored for several projects since he dropped out of the videogame adaptation Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, yet another Mark Wahlberg project. Russell was rumored for the buzz heavy adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which has since been taken on by Lars and the Real Girl director Craig Gillespie, as well as an action drama called The Mission among a number of other projects.
Like I said, take this with a grain of salt as it is in no way official yet. David is a busy man with a lot on his plate and what his next projects ends up being is really anyone’s guess.
