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Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Cate Blanchett Possibly Going Evil in Disney’s Live-Action Cinderella Remake

by Rebecca Pahle | 11:00 am, November 28th, 2012


I’m a bit cynical about the “edgy fairy tale” trend that keeps going around, but this new Cinderella movie Disney’s planning miiiiight just have gotten my vote of confidence. Why, you ask? Two words: Cate. Blanchett.

Nothing’s official yet, but The Wrap is reporting that Blanchett is in talks to play the evil stepmother in Disney’s “Untitled Cinderella Story.”

YES. PLEASE.

The possibility of Blanchett-as-evil-stepmother is the first casting news we’ve gotten from the film, which is being directed by Mark Romanek, director of the excellent Never Let Me Go, and written by Chris Weitz, who penned The Golden Compass and About a Boy. The film has been in the works since 2010 when, says The Wrap, “Disney set the project up in the wake of its success with Alice in Wonderland.” Surprise, surprise.

OK, sorry, my cynicism got away from me a little bit there, but I’ll try to reign it in, because Cate Blanchett playing the evil stepmother? Awesome. Is it too much to hope that the entire film will be centered around its villain, a la Maleficent? Possibly. But I can hope, can’t I?

Even though my #1 live-action Cinderella is and always will be the 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein’s version, the one starring Lesley Anne Warren (it had Pat Carroll—a.k.a. Ursula from The Little Mermaid—as one of the evil stepsisters. You can’t beat that!), I’m still excited about this one. Cate Blanchett! Kermit flail!

(via: Digital Spy)

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  • http://twitter.com/giapet gia manry

    I dunno, Charlize Theron wasn’t able to save Snow White and the Huntsman. Though I guess it did well enough for a sequel.

  • http://wrongsirwrong.blogspot.com/ Magic Xylophone

    Ehhh… I don’t see it. I mean, I’m sure she could act the part, but she doesn’t have a great vampy face like Anjelica Huston or the Disney cartoon character.

  • Anonymous

    Cate Blanchett might be the greatest actress out there and she needs to be in a good blockbuster that uses her well. Galadriel is a minor character that doesn’t require an actress of her skill and Spielberg didn’t give her a good character for his Indiana Jones film.
    And by “she needs to”, I mean “I need her to”.

  • Vanja

    She played evil in ‘Hanna’ and I hated her in that role and I hated the whole film.

  • http://twitter.com/nonikell nicole kellett

    She was not, but I would say if you look at her parts (not the movie as a whole) she did an excellent job.

    I would also like to see the story told more from the step-mothers POV than Cinderella’s. just an FYI: my personal fav Cinderella story is The Slipper and the Rose.

  • Betty Windsor

    Cate Blanchett can do anything she wants. Including being Bob Dylan and Lady Galadriel which are two entirely different scales of attractivesness, and still on the far end of awesomeness talent. They could remake, or reinvent any series of films or over troped story and add Cate Blanchett to it, immediately increasing the levels of greateness to that of possibly brain exploding acting. My mind is so damn garbled because of my love of BLANCHETT AND LADYKIND!

  • http://twitter.com/CuriousArtemis Bridget

    Written by the guy who butchered The Golden Compass? No thanks.

  • Rebecca Pahle

    i agree that it’s way too early to say—but at least it’s getting off on the right foot with Blanchett and Romanek. It still might be a train wreck, but the fact that its director has a good track record is at least encouraging, whereas Snow White and the Huntsman was the first feature Rupert Sanders ever helmed.

  • Rebecca Pahle

    Don’t forget, he’s also the guy who directed New Moon!

  • John Wao

    I guess we can expect an onslaught of live action versions (or multiple versions if Snow White is any indication) of every Disney animated movie and Brothers Grimm fairy tale. yay?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Eric-Bazilio/100000132443742 Eric Bazilio

    It’s weird to think of Galadriel as a minor chacacter, given the insane amounts of raw power she possess. But yeah, I guess…

  • http://wrongsirwrong.blogspot.com/ Magic Xylophone

    I’m so deadened inside from that experience I find myself not especially caring whether he fucks up Cinderella.

  • http://wrongsirwrong.blogspot.com/ Magic Xylophone

    “Galadriel is a minor character that doesn’t require an actress of her skill”

    Have you not heard the term “character actor?”

  • Anonymous

    I did… what’s your point?

  • http://wrongsirwrong.blogspot.com/ Magic Xylophone

    That minor characters don’t require less talented actors than than major characters. Just because Galadriel doesn’t get a lot of screen time doesn’t mean Blanchett was wasted. This is the whole reason they have Best Supporting Actor awards.

  • Anonymous

    But she wasn’t up for a Best Supporting Actress award for that part. Galadriel didn’t get a lot of screen time AND she wasn’t especially difficult to play. I wouldn’t necessarily say she was wasted (it’s common for productions of the scope of LOTR to have great actors in small parts) but that part was not what I call a challenge either. She could do a lot better.

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