Emma Stone in talks to play the ‘young Cruella de Vil’: terrible or fantastic?

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At the end of the day, Angelina Jolie-as-Maleficent was a success on a lot of different levels. Disney made it clear that they were only going to make the film with Angelina’s involvement, because she was the only person they saw playing the “villain” of Sleeping Beauty. While it seemed like Angelina had issues with the director, the film was pretty good and it made about $760 million worldwide. Plus, Angelina had finally made a live-action kids’ film! After Maleficent’s success, it makes sense that Disney is looking to do “retellings” or “origin stories” of their iconic villains. And they’ve decided to do an origin story for 101 Dalmatians’ Cruella de Vil!!! Blasphemy! And they want Emma Stone to play the young Cruella.

Emma Stone is in early negotiations to portray the iconic Disney villainess Cruella de Vil in the film Cruella, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The project, Disney’s live-action re-imagining of the 101 Dalmatians character, has no director but it is a priority for the studio which is hoping to shoot the film later this year.

Kelly Marcel is writing the script which is intended to be an origin story of the character. Aline Brosh McKenna worked on an early version of the script. De Vil is the villain who was obsessed with capturing the dalmatians in the 1961 animated classic, intent on having their hides. Glenn Close played her in the 1996 live-action film produced by John Hughes that the character her the head of a fashion house.

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

I actually like Emma Stone a lot and I think she’s very talented across the board, particularly in comedic roles. I also think her career is slightly in a rut, although I feel weird for saying that because she just got an Oscar nomination last year (for Birdman). But between Aloha and the fact that she recently filmed another stupid-looking movie with Ryan Gosling, it does seem like Hollywood is trying to find a place for her and no one’s sure where she should go. As for the role of “Young Cruella”… I feel like this would be a difficult role to make as straight-up camp comedy, and I really don’t understand how Cruella’s motives could be anything other than evil, you know?

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Photos courtesy of WENN, Disney.

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26 Responses to “Emma Stone in talks to play the ‘young Cruella de Vil’: terrible or fantastic?”

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  1. Loo says:

    I’m not interested in the film but I like the casting a lot. It will be nice to see her take on a non girlfriend role in a big budget film.

  2. Shambles says:

    Yes. I’m so for it.

    Maybe Cruella was a bright, young, beautiful, white-blonde fashion designer with everything going for her, until some horrible tragedy happened that somehow turned half of her hair black and left her with a brain injury that destroyed all her empathy and manifested in her obsession with fur. And when she gets arrested after all of her Dalmation exploits she finally gets the help she needs at a mental hospital, and it turns into a commentary on compassion for people with brain injuries?

    *shrugs*

    Either way I think Emma would be perfect. Just zany enough.

  3. lunchcoma says:

    1. This is a stupid idea for a movie. Cruella is fun as a side character, but I can’t imagine her as a protagonist. She’s not that complex. She also kills dogs. I don’t know how you even retcon a character who kills dogs.

    2. Although I think this is a stupid idea for a movie and as such am glad no one I really care about is in it, I can’t help but notice that Hollywood will do almost anything to cast a twentysomething blonde, whatever the character was originally written to look like.

    • Lizzie McGuire says:

      I’m wondering who’s this movie made for, you know lately with the flops of last year the studios need to stop & think for a second about it. I watched Maleficent, it was not bad & sort of enjoyable. The thing that bother me a bit was they are Disney villains, & in Maleficent she was good while everyone else except Aurora was mean & evil towards her. I couldn’t get with that plot.
      But if they’re really going to make the movie I feel like Jessica Chastain will play a better Cruella de Vil.

      • lunchcoma says:

        Yeah, I don’t know who this is for, either. It sounds like this is probably too dark for little kids. Fans are presumably adult women, but I don’t get the feeling that either Emma or Cruella has the same following as Angelina and Maleficent.

    • Lex says:

      Seeeeee my vest, see my vest!
      I see a musical number being her character’s turn around point

  4. InvaderTak says:

    Uhg. So it’s Wicked only the dalmatians version? Yawn.

  5. CK says:

    No. I don’t need another Disney moving about a Villain, who turns out to “not really be a villain”. I loved Wicked and most of Gregory Maguire’s retellings, but I don’t need to see it for every iconic Disney villain.
    It also doesn’t help the fact that they are making the character younger just to cast a 20-something actress.

    • Amide says:

      “No. I don’t need another Disney moving about a Villain, who turns out to “not really be a villain”. + 1

    • Lizzie McGuire says:

      I agree! Maleficent was an ok movie, but I just couldn’t get behind the plot. So everyone else was evil & mean towards her except Aurora. It made no sense at all, so if Cruella De Vil is going to be the same then that means the puppies are the evil ones in the this movie. Damn you dalmatians!

  6. Jegede says:

    She’s cute but Emma does not work in a femme fatale performance.
    See ‘Gangster’s Squad’.

    And, I’m so tried of every villain needing to have some ‘back story’ to understanding/empathy.

    What’s the fun in that? Sometimes evil is as evil is.

    I didn’t go for Malefecent, and I have even less interest in this, so, whatever.

    *They’re probably going to make some biographical action film on the person who shot Bambi’s mother next!!

  7. Katie Oh says:

    She’s be good in that role, but surely she will struggle to escape comparisons with Glenn Close’s excellent turn in the same part?

  8. Farhi says:

    She will pull it off (the part that is), but I am not sure about the movie’s appeal in general.

  9. Lou says:

    I can’t see Emma playing evil and i don’t think i am able to have empathy for someone who kills dogs!!! But i guess this is going to happen regardless so time till tell!

  10. serena says:

    It’s not like Cruella has to be ‘good’ originally, I would enjoy more about the young Cruella but without sugarcoating everything. Who cares if she was evil to begin with? But it’d be interesting to find out about her motives. I think Emma could do it, she’s really in a slump lately -role wise- doing romantic or comedy ones.. so an ‘evil’ one could be an interesting challenge for her.

  11. alice says:

    Young Cruella? YOUNG CRUELLA? Jesus I hope Emma has learnt something about what happens when Hollywood tries to miscast a role in favor of the young/white/sexy stereotype they have been putting women for ages. She saw what happens when they whitewashed her character in that Ahola disastrous movie, same thing will happen if they try to make a younger Cruella: the character has always been middle aged and one of the few interest female characters in that universe, why Emma why!?!? SAY NO! For the sake of your older self, I know it will be difficult to say no to the studio system, but for once give up one for the team.

  12. Bread and Circuses says:

    Although I’ll forever be of the opinion Glenn Close was the perfect Cruella de Vil, I like this casting. Cruella, the cartoon, has large eyes and a large smile. Emma is actually a pretty great fit for that image.

  13. Magpie says:

    Nope, not feeling it. Carey Muligan would be better, plus it was set in London.

  14. Josefina says:

    I like the idea of watching a film about young Cruella, actually. I don’t see how that would be ageist if the whole point is learning about her origins.

    But I don’t think Emma’s a good pick for the role. With her big eyes and innocent smile, she wouldn’t be a convincing villain. I think Kiera Knightley would be a much better pick. She has sharp features and is actually British.

  15. Valois says:

    I liked the young Cruella-version in once Upon a Time. She was a truly evil psychopath. I am not interested in seeing another
    villain turned into a good guy.

  16. Kasia says:

    What happened to all the good screenplays? She should be playing the roles of amazing, intelligent, funny, belligerent Woody-Allenesque women. I also feel there aren’t enough roles for her. She would have had plenty of interesting roles back in the 70’s or 80’s. But now…when Hollywood has so few ideas that they try to remake every single old story…I’m sorry for her, because I truly love her as an actress.

  17. Maria A. says:

    No, just no. The world does not need a Cruella de Vil movie.