Angelina Jolie to play Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty film
If 2012 is the year of Snow White, 2013 will be the Wizard of Oz year and 2014 will bring a tale of Sleeping Beauty to the big screen with Angelina Jolie, who has signed on to portray the wicked godmother, it was announced by Disney Studios on April 9.
Similar to the role that Julia Roberts and Charlize Theron have played this year in two versions of the tale of Snow White, Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman, Jolie will portray the title role, the villain Maleficent, who curses Princess Aurora.
The US release date for the live-action film will be March 14, 2014. The film explores the evil origins of Maleficent and what led her to curse Princess Aurora to sleep in the classic story of Sleeping Beauty.
In speaking of exploring the origins of the evil fairy from 1959's animated Sleeping Beauty, Jolie told Entertainment Weekly the project is "not anti-princess...I'm having a lot of fun. I've already got my horns fitted."
The Maleficent team includes Joe Roth (Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Oz the Great and Powerful), screenwriter Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) and Oscar winning production designer Robert Stromberg (Avatar, Alice in Wonderland), who will make his directorial debut.
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