Mitchell Beaupre
While Glenn Close is on the hunt for her first Oscar win this year for her supporting role in Hillbilly Elegy, it’s hard to imagine us seeing a prequel film for Mamaw coming anytime soon.
What makes a little more sense is the impending arrival of Cruella, an origin story for the villain Cruella de Vil, so memorably played by Close in the 1996 live-action version of Disney’s 101 Dalmations, along with its 2000 sequel.
Today, Disney dropped a trailer for the film, which stars Oscar winner Emma Stone as the titular character (here named Estella), following her early days in 1970s London as an aspiring fashion designer who, you guessed it, develops an absolute need to use dog skins for her designs.
The film is directed by Craig Gillespie, who was last seen directing Margot Robbie and Allison Janney to Oscar love (a nod for Robbie, a win for Janney) for I, Tonya. Joining Stone in the cast are Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, and Mark Strong.
Here’s Disney’s official synopsis for the film:
Academy Award® winner Emma Stone (“La La Land”) stars in Disney’s “Cruella,” an all-new live-action feature film about the rebellious early days of one of cinemas most notorious – and notoriously fashionable – villains, the legendary Cruella de Vil. “Cruella,” which is set in 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, follows a young grifter named Estella, a clever and creative girl determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute, played by two-time Oscar® winner Emma Thompson (“Howards End,” “Sense & Sensibility”). But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.
Cruella is set to be released on May 28th, 2021, but the question remains of just how that release will be structured. Disney is so far mum on whether the film will be put out in theaters, on Disney+, or some sort of hybrid. Other recent releases like Mulan and Raya and the Last Dragon have gone Disney+’s Premier Access route, being available to subscribers to the streaming service at an additional $30 cost. Pixar’s Soul, meanwhile, was simply put direct on the service for subscribers at no additional cost. Then there’s the case of Marvel’s Black Widow, which so far has continued to be delayed while it holds out for a theatrical release.
Time will tell where Cruella will fall, but for now you can see the film’s trailer below:
Finally answering the age-old question, “What if Coco Chanel was eeeeviiiiil (but not in the Nazi way that the real Coco Chanel was)?”