As they swiftly build the cast for the new live-action version of Cinderella, director Kenneth Branagh and the Disney team are recruiting someone they’ve both worked with before, as Helena Bonham Carter is on to play the Fairy Godmother{
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Bonham Carter’s role as the magical guardian who helps out our heroine (played by Lily James) will be a beefier one than is traditional. Instead of just popping up to help convert household objects into a ball gown, shoes, a carriage and the rest, she’ll be undercover as an old beggar who watches over Cinders until the moment is right to step in and change her life. We imagine that HBC will make a convincing and amusing mad beggar lady.
Bonham Carter joins a cast that also already includes Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother, Sophie McShera and Holliday Granger as the scheming stepsisters and Richard Madden as Prince Charming.
With a script by Aline Brosh McKenna and Chris Weitz, the film will shoot at Pinewood later this year. Bonham Carter will next show up as Red in The Lone Ranger (out August 9) and as Dr. Clair in The Young And Prodigious T.S. Spivet, which has yet to lock in a UK release date.