From the looks of everything we know so far, Disney’s new Maleficent won’t just provide a look at the Sleeping Beauty story from the point of view of the villain, it’ll spin off a whole new mythology surrounding the basic fairy tale of the ill-fated princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) and the woman who has it out for her (Angelina Jolie). Now director Robert Stromberg has locked in a prince, with Aussie actor Brenton Thwaites signed up.
Thwaites is yet another product of the actor factory that is Home And Away, and will be playing the as-yet-unnamed young royal.
He’s just one thread in a story that starts with Maleficent, slighted at the party for the birth of Aurora, and crafts a tapestry about tension between the human and fairy worlds and the idea that Maleficent herself may not have had the happiest of childhoods.
Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple are on to play the three pixies charged with looking after Aurora as she sleeps through Maleficent’s curse, while Kenneth Cranham will be the human king with his eye on conquering the fairy realm. Sharlto Copley is his half-human / half-fae offspring, and Miranda Richardson is Fairy Queen Ulla, who is also Maleficent’s cold aunt. Sam Riley is also aboard as our anti-heroine’s right-hand man.
Linda Woolverton wrote the script and Stromberg is kicking off shooting next month, aiming for a March 2014 US release date.