Disney’s D23 Expo has now ended, and amongst the news about their live action film we got a first look at the logos for Tomorrowland, Maleficent, Into The Wood and Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella (the last two via /Film).
Here’s some official info on the movies: ‘Maleficent is the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from the 1959 classic “Sleeping Beauty.” A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. Maleficent rises to be the land’s fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal—an act that begins to turn her pure heart to stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading king’s successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom—and perhaps to Maleficent’s true happiness as well. The film also stars Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Miranda Richardson, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville and is produced by Joe Roth and directed by Robert Stromberg. Linda Woolverton, the screenwriter of “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast,” wrote the screenplay. “Maleficent” opens in theaters on July 2, 2014.
Tomorrowland: Starring George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy and Thomas Robinson, the action-packed adventure hits theaters December 12, 2014.
“Into the Woods,” based on the Tony®-winning original musical by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim, surrounds a baker and his wife’s quest to break a witch’s curse in order to start a family. Along the way, they encounter several well-known fairy tale characters and together they learn what happens after “happily ever after.” The film is slated for a December 2014 holiday release.
The D23 audience also got a very early look at the still in development and pre-production Cinderella’s gown, which Kenneth Barnagh is set to direct. It’s due out March 13, 2015.
After a couple of quiet weeks, there was a bit of a crush of new movies at the US box office this weekend, and heading into the weekend nobody was entirely certain which would end up on top. In the end it was the Matt Damon sci-fi Elysium, which took $30 million to top the chart. That’s a passable start, although not as much as the $35 million plus Sony had been hoping for.
Among all the news that Disney has been revealing at their D23 Expo comes the announcement of a new Peter Pan prequel that Disneytoon Studios is making, The Pirate Fairy. While Disneytoon is largely responsible for Disney’s straight-to-DVD offerings, they do sometimes go a little bigger and theatrical, such as with the Cars spin-off Planes, which hit US theatres this weekend.
