It seems Disney is leaving no stone unturned in its mission to crack open its beloved vault of animated children’s classics and spin out live-action reboots. One such project to join the queue fairly early on was Cruella, an origin story designed to shed light on the formative years of Cruella De Vil.
La La Land‘s Emma Stone has since agreed to don the fur coat as a younger incarnation of the sneering 101 Dalmatians villain, and Deadline is now reporting that the Mouse House has narrowed down its search for a director.
According to the outlet, Mozart of the Jungle co-creator and theater director Alex Timbers is circling the live-action gig, and though negotiations are said to be ongoing, what with his theatrical background, Timbers certainly fits the bill. Described as an affluent fashionista, the first story-related morsels tease that Emma Stone’s De Vil touts strong fashion and music sensibilities, and given Cruella is being angled as an origin story – similar in nature to Maleficent, only less fantastical – we fully expect Disney’s modern redo to humanize the menacing title character. It’s too early to gauge when the cameras will begin rolling on this one, but we do know Jez Butterworth has been elected to hash out the most recent draft of the screenplay.
Cruella is beginning to display tangible signs of progress at Disney, and we’ll keep you posted as these negotiations between the House of Mouse and Timbers unfold.
