Everyone knows the story of Sleeping Beauty — but what happened before her story was told?
That’s the key question at the heart of the new Disney movie directed by Richard Stromberg and starring Angelina Jolie as the horned, demon-eyed sorceress. In “Maleficent,” the legendary villain gets a new lease on life, through a retelling of the classic fairy tale that shows a softer, more sympathetic side of Sleeping Beauty’s “nemesis.”
“It’s the classic story of Sleeping Beauty, plus so much more,” says Elle Fanning in a new “Maleficent” behind-the-scenes featurette, exploring the true “legacy” of Maleficent. Fanning stars in the film as the sleeping princess Aurora, who has a different relationship with Maleficent than the 1959 Disney animated classic led viewers to believe.
“I always felt when I watched the animated movie that I wasn’t super-scared when I watched her,” she says. “I was always sort of intrigued with her.”
Indeed, in revisiting “Sleeping Beauty,” screenwriter Linda Woolverton was equally intrigued by Maleficent’s untold story.
“I watched the movie and came up with some ideas that revealed more about the character,” she says. “I created a past for her that leads to the moment in which she curses Aurora, and then takes us past that moment from Maleficent’s point of view. It’s a reinvention, not just a retelling of the story.”
“We respected the classic,” adds Jolie. “We’ve tried to bring you what you love about this story. We also hope to bring you a world you’ve never seen before. It’s a very beautiful story, and I think it’s very different from what people are going to expect.”
“Maleficent” opens on May 30.
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