Disney let it leak two years ago that one of the things they had stewing in their pot was a live-action movie featuring Maleficent, the villain (and fan favorite of everybody who found Sleeping Beauty‘s heroine a little flat) of one of Disney’s most historically important animated films. Since then, we haven’t had much but rumors about it, but what exciting rumors!
First Brad Bird was going to direct, then Angelina Jolie was going to star, then Tim Burton was being put in charge of the project. Well, while Jolie was still interested in July of last year, Burton is officially off Maleficent.
According to Heat Vision, no concrete reasons for his departure have been offered yet, but the director/producer does have his name on a couple projects currently, Dark Shadows and a stop-motion remake of his short film Frankenweenie, so it is plausible that time constraints were the culprit.
The remaining names that are firmly attached to the project are Jolie and Linda Woolverton, the screenwriter behind The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and, no joking, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. Disney is also looking into replacing Tim Burton as director with David Yates, veteran of the last for Harry Potter movies.
(via Digital Spy.)
