Emma Stone is reportedly in negotiations with Disney to take on the lead role in a new film about the villainous Cruella de Vil. According toThe Hollywood Reporter, Stone would play the iconic 101 Dalmatians antagonist in a live-action origin story entitled Cruella.
Disney has no director on board, but there is a script by Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) that’s currently being reworked by Kelly Marcel (Fifty Shades of Grey). The studio hopes to have the film before a lens later this year.
In the classic 1961 animated film, de Vil is a wealthy fur heiress bent on making coat out of the hides of 101 dalmatians. Glenn Close played the character in the John Hughes-produced 1996 live-action adaptation of the original, in which she was reimagined as the head of a major fashion house. Were Stone to get the part, she’d be portraying an early version of the villain, much as Angelina Jolie did with her character in Maleficent.
Cruella is just the latest in a series of live-action reboots in the works at Disney. Also on the way: Cinderella starring Lily James; Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson; Dumbo helmed by Tim Burton; Pinocchio written by Peter Hedges; and even an Aladdin origin story called Genies.
