Disney loves to do live-action remakes of their animated classics, but they also like something else: renegade origin stories for once-feared villains. It worked with Maleficent, sprung from Sleeping Beauty, and last weekend it worked for Cruella, which delved into the backstory of the baddie from 101 Dalmatians while giving Emma Stone a proper vehicle. So naturally it’s now getting a sequel.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, the super company is already in early talks for a Cruella follow-up, with director Craig Gillespie and screenwriter Tony McNamara likely to return. What they’ll do next is anyone’s guess. Cruella was a highly unusual Disney product, jettisoning almost everything from 101 Dalmatians except for Cruella de Vil herself, who was reworked as a young, aspiring fashionista driven mad by a tyrannical mentor-turned-competitor (Emma Thompson). It was also set in the 1970s, making the most of its English punk milieu.
Will the sequel get to the part of Cruella’s life that made her feared and famous: that she likes to skin dogs and wear their skin? Perhaps not. It’s a Disney film after all, and Cruella is not a hero but also not exactly hissable either. But the first film did already get to the part that explains why she hates that breed of dogs in the first place.
(Via THR)
