Chris Weitz To Rewrite Disney’s Live Action ‘Cinderella’ For Mark Romanek
In May 2010, Disneybought a pitchbyThe Devil Wears Prada/We Bought A ZooscribeAline Brosh McKennato remake their classic filmCinderellain live-action. This was a few months after Tim Burton’sAlice in Wonderlandwas a major hit for the studio and fantasy remakes became a go-to genre (seeMirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, Oz the Great and the Powerfuletc.). A year later, directorMark Romanek(Never Let Me Go)was attached to the projectand soon after that Universalbegan developing a rivalproduction. Since then, all’s quiet on the glass slipper front. Until today.
Chris Weitz, an Oscar-nominee forAbout a Boyand director ofThe Golden CompassandThe Twilight Saga: New Moon, has been tapped to rewrite McKenna’s original draft, breathing life into a film we’d long since thought was nothing but a sleeping beauty. Read more after the jump.The Hollywood Reporterbroke the news of the Weitz’s deal on the film, which will be produced by Simon Kinberg.
They explicitly state we still don’t know what, if anything, differentiates Aline Brosh McKenna’sCinderellafrom the classic Disney version of the film, besides it being live action. It seems likely, though, that Disney is preparing a new script just in case the two competingSnow Whitefilms released over the next few months hit as big asAlicedid. If that happens, boom, they’re ready to go with another famous princess.
Weitz has has an incredibly varied and interesting career thus far. He got his start writingAntzfor DreamWorks, worked onAmerican Piewith his brother Paul, the directed and co-wroteAbout a Boy, The Golden Compassand had his biggest success directing the secondTwilightmovie. This past year, almost out of nowhere, he helmed the tiny character pieceA Better Lifewhich got star Demián Bichir an Oscar nomination.
I don’t think we’re all clamouring for aCinderellaremake but the team of Weitz and Romanek definitely puts this one on the radar. What do you think?
