Disney's latest film, a live action retelling of "Cinderella," is part of a big change in the company's strategy.
Originally, Disney films were known for their hand-drawn animation, but after the 2009 "The Princess and the Frog" failed to ignite the box office, the studio reportedly axed their traditional animation and moved almost exclusively to computer-animated films.
But recently, the trend has been to revisit those older, 2D film- in live-action. This year came "Maleficent," which recently crossed the $600 million mark at the worldwide box office, and coming soon are new live action versions of "Beauty and the Beast" and "101 Dalmations," along with a live action TV series documenting the lives of the children of Disney villains.
"Cinderella," as well, is slated to release in March of 2015. Directed by Kenneth Branagh ("Thor,") and starring Lily James ("Downton Abbey") and Richard Madden ("Game of Thrones"), the film promises to be a much more faithful retelling of the original Disney film- unlike "Maleficent," which strayed away from the original story to highlight Angelina Jolie's titular character.
However, the titular character is being referred to as "Ella" and not "Cinderella," which may be a way of slightly modernizing her for a younger audience.
A teaser trailer for the film has just been released, which shows something crystalline in extreme closeup. Only at the end of the trailer does the camera pull back, revealing that the crystal is actually Cinderella's fabled glass slipper. The trailer does not even feature the name of the film, relying solely on the Disney logo and the famous glass slipper to get the point across.
The March 2015 release date is mentioned in the trailer as well.
Given the success of "Maleficent," if "Cinderella" can light a similar fire under the box-office, Disney may continue with live-action remakes of its older films for quite a while.
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