In the past few days you may have heard that Elle Fanning is in talks to play Sleeping Beauty and you may have wondered why I haven't said a word. All things Sleeping Beauty send me into instant hyper sleep until I have the strength to deal.
As often confessed, I am an über fan of Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959) which is easily among their tippity-top achievements as a studio and my personal favorite (at least of their pre-Lil'Mermaid history). A live action Maleficent could go wrong in about a million ways even though it will meet animation halfway by starring everyone's favorite Cartoon Movie Star* Angelina Jolie.
*since she can't be real she must have been drawn that way.
It's always a bit strange to watch the way Hollywood gloms on to certain actresses and right now it seems like if you aren't Chloe or Elle you simply don't exist to them in the teen bracket. But if it has to be one of them, yes please 1000 times on Fanning. The strange thing about the internet's / entertainment world's fascination with Elle Fanning is her absence of any distinct persona. I bet you can describe Dakota Fanning and even Saoirse Ronan and definitely Chloe Moretz's personalities (or your projections of them) right this second but try telling us who Elle Fanning is (outside of "Dakota's little sister") without using the generic term of "fashionista" which describes 87% of all young actresses with substantial income / fame.
We'll wait. [more after the jump]
well?
See!
Come to think of it, this might be an advantage since the world is all dreamy about Elle Fanning right now and she could spend half the picture comatose.
Fanning's name brings new attention to the picture (which has yet to start filming) but the Prince Charming role is more important to cast correctly. Consider for a moment the absurd difficulty of finding a teenage boy who Angelina Jolie won't completely incinerate with her star wattage the second they're in the frame together.
To the casting director: Good Luck. You'll need it.
The principle worrying thing though is the Art Director Robert Stromberg as first time director.
We thought we'd dodged a worst-case bullet "let's try to recreate the success of Eyesore in Wonderland!" once Tim Burton vacated the director's chair only to realize that Stromberg was getting a promotion. Art Directors can make fine directors (see Ridley Scott) but Tim Burton's Eyesore in Wonderland (2010) was so relentlessly hideous to look upon that we have to worry about his taste level.
It's especially weird to think about Stromberg's Wonderland designs in regards to Sleeping Beauty since Disney's previous adaptation of the fairy tale is serenely still and majestic with a supremely controlled color palette. They're like polar opposite films visually speaking.
Stromberg and his gold man. Actually, he's got two of them.Stromberg won two Oscars back to back for art direction (Avatar then Wonderland) and if those two films are any indication he loves nothing more than gawdy color palettes. In Stromberg's defense Avatar is improbably beautiful to look at despite or maybe even because of the confidence of its potentially garish colors and fertile visuals.
Best case scenario: the muddy eye-bleeding ugliness of Eyesore was an accident of over-confidence, post conversion 3D image botching and Burton & team's lack of visual control over a property that basically demands visual abandon and is thus fertile ground for error.
Maybe Maleficent (2013) will be amazing to look upon and Stromberg will become a new favorite. Maybe. Cross your fingers. Avoid pricking them.