Maleficent
Maleficent |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Robert Stromberg |
Produced by | Joe Roth |
Screenplay by | Linda Woolverton |
Based on | |
Starring | |
Narrated by | Janet McTeer |
Music by | James Newton Howard |
Cinematography | Dean Semler |
Edited by | |
Production company |
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Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Release date(s) |
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Running time | 97 minutes[1] |
Country |
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Language | English |
Budget | $180 million[2] |
Box office | $525,543,593[2] |
Maleficent (/məˈlɛfɪsənt/) is a 2014 American fantasy film directed by Robert Stromberg from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton. Starring Angelina Jolie as the eponymous Disney villainess character, the film is a live-action re-imagining of Walt Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, and portrays the story from the perspective of the antagonist, Maleficent.[3]
Principal photography took place between June and October 2012. The film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on May 28, 2014, and was released in the United Kingdom that same day. It was released by Walt Disney Pictures in the U.S. on May 30, 2014 in the Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D
formats, as well as in conventional theaters. The film was met with
mixed reviews from critics, but was a commercial success grossing $525
million worldwide.
Plot
An elderly narrator tells the story of Maleficent, a very strong and
powerful faerie living in the Moors, a magical realm bordering a human
kingdom. As a young girl, she falls in love with a human peasant boy
named Stefan, but his mutual affection for Maleficent is overshadowed by
his ambition to become king. As they grow older, Stefan stops seeing
Maleficent. After Maleficent defeats the current king in battle when he
attempts to invade the Moors, he offers to name whoever kills her as his
successor. Stefan overhears this, goes to see Maleficent and deceives
her into thinking that he has come to warn her of the king's plot. He
then drugs her and attempts to kill her but cannot bring himself to do
so. Instead, he burns her wings off with iron, a lethal substance to
fairies, and presents them to the king as proof of her death. Maleficent
rescues a raven named Diaval to serve as her informant and he reports
to her that Stefan has been crowned king. The realization that Stefan
betrayed her to gain the throne devastates Maleficent and in
retaliation, she declares herself queen of the Moors, forming a dark
oppressive kingdom with Diaval as her one companion and confidant.
Some time later, Diaval informs Maleficent that King Stefan is
hosting a christening for his newborn daughter, Aurora. Bent on revenge,
Maleficent arrives uninvited and curses the newborn princess: on her
sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a
spinning wheel, which will cause her to fall into a death-like sleep.
After Stefan is forced by Maleficent to beg for his daughter, she offers
a caveat: the curse can be broken by true love's
kiss. Terrified of Maleficent's vengeance, Stefan sends Aurora to live
with three pixies until the day after her sixteenth birthday. He sends
out his armies to find and kill Maleficent, but she surrounds her
kingdom with an impenetrable shield of thorns.
Despite her initial dislike for Princess Aurora,
Maleficent begins to care about the girl when the neglectful pixies
fail to do so. After a brief meeting with the young Aurora, Maleficent
watches over her from afar. When Aurora is 15, she sees Maleficent for
the first time since then and calls her "faerie godmother", as she
recalled being watched over by her all her life. Realizing she has grown
fond of the princess, Maleficent attempts to revoke the curse, but
cannot as she herself had declared nothing could stop it. Aurora later
falls in love with Prince Philip. On the day before Aurora's 16th
birthday, Maleficent, hoping the avoid the curse, allows the girl to
live in the Moors, far away from any spindles. The pixies, however,
inadvertently tell Aurora of her parentage and of Maleficent's true
identity, and a furious Aurora runs away to her father.
After a quick dismissive reunion on his part, Stefan locks Aurora
away for safekeeping. She begins to fall under the curse's eternal
sleeping trance. She is drawn to the dungeon, where the curse assembles a
spinning wheel. Aurora pricks her finger and falls asleep. Intent on
saving her, Maleficent abducts Phillip and infiltrates Stefan's castle
to have him kiss Aurora and break the curse. However, Phillip's romantic
kiss has no effect. Maleficent apologizes to the princess and swears no
harm will come to her, kissing Aurora's forehead. This causes Aurora to
awaken. Maleficent's curse has been broken as her motherly concern for
Aurora constitutes "true love". Aurora forgives her and they attempt to
flee the castle, but Maleficent is trapped in an iron net and attacked
by Stefan and his guards. Maleficent transforms Diaval into a dragon and
he lifts the net off her, but is driven back by the soldiers. Stefan
beats Maleficent and taunts her, but before he can kill her, her wings,
freed from his chamber by Aurora, fly back to her and reattach
themselves. Stefan attempts once more to kill her, but plummets to his
death. Aurora is crowned queen of the human and faerie realms by
Maleficent, unifying the two kingdoms with Phillip at her side. The
narrator then reveals her identity as "the one they called the Sleeping
Beauty".
Cast
- Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, the queen fairy of the Moors who casts a death-like sleep curse on Princess Aurora[4]
- Ella Purnell and Isobelle Molloy as young Maleficent[5][6][7]
- Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora, daughter of King Stefan and princess of the human kingdom[4]
- Vivienne Jolie-Pitt[8] and Eleanor Worthington Cox[9] as young Princess Aurora
- Janet McTeer as elderly Aurora (the film's narrator)[10]
- Sharlto Copley as King Stefan, ruler of the human kingdom and Aurora's father[4]
- Michael Higgins as young Stefan[11]
- Sam Riley as Diaval, a raven shapeshifter and Maleficent's confidant.[4]
- Imelda Staunton as Knotgrass, a pixie charged with raising Aurora in secret until her 16th birthday.[4]
- Juno Temple as Thistlewit, a pixie charged with raising Aurora in secret until her 16th birthday.[12]
- Lesley Manville as Flittle, a pixie charged with raising Aurora in secret until her 16th birthday.[4]
- Brenton Thwaites as Phillip, a young prince who falls in love with Aurora while traveling through the forest.[13]
- Kenneth Cranham as King Henry, a monarch determined to conquer the forest realm.[4][14]
- Hannah New as Leila, King Henry's daughter who marries Stefan and Aurora's mother.
Production
Angelina Jolie had long been attached to the project since May 2011, when Tim Burton, who had tentatively planned to direct, chose not to pursue it.[15] Linda Woolverton was commissioned to write the script for the film.[16] On January 6, 2012, Disney announced that Robert Stromberg, the production designer of Alice in Wonderland, and Oz the Great and Powerful, would direct the film.[17] Joe Roth, Don Hahn, and Richard D. Zanuck were hired as producers, although Zanuck died later that year.[18]
Roth said the film would not have been made if Angelina Jolie had not
agreed to take the title role: "She seemed like the only person who
could play the part. There was no point in making the movie if it wasn't
her."[19]
In March 2012, Elle Fanning was reported to be in talks for the role of Princess Aurora.[20][21] Her casting was officially announced in May 2012, along with Sharlto Copley as the male lead, Stefan, then described as the half-human, half-fairy son of a human king, along with Imelda Staunton; Miranda Richardson as Queen Ulla, then described as a fairy queen who is Maleficent's aunt with a dislike of her niece; Kenneth Cranham as a king; Sam Riley as Diaval, a raven who changes into human form and is Maleficent's right hand; and Lesley Manville.[4]
Writing
Linda Woolverton's screenplay went through at least 15 versions as the film progressed in the production.[22]
Director Robert Stromberg said: "I met many times with Linda
Woolverton, the writer. We did lots of roundtable discussions and sort
of cut out the fat as much as we could and sort of purified the
storyline as much as we could (...)"[23]
In some earlier versions of the story, Stefan was the half-human,
half-fairy bastard son of King Henry. The version of the screenplay
which went into shooting originally included two characters called Queen
Ulla and King Kinloch, the fairy queen and the fairy king of the Moors,
and the aunt and uncle of Maleficent.[4] Miranda Richardson and Peter Capaldi
were cast and shot the Queen Ulla and King Kinloch scenes, but they
were cut in the editing process together with more than 15 minutes of
the first act of the film. Stromberg said: "We spent a bit more time
originally in the fairy world before we got into the human side of
things (...) we wanted to get it [the film] under two hours. So we cut
about fifteen minutes out of the first act, and then that had to be
seamed together with some pretty basic reshoots."[24]
Filming
With a budget estimated at $130–200 million, principal photography began on June 18, 2012 in London with the first pictures from set emerging and the first official look of Jolie as Maleficent.[25] Rick Baker designed the special makeup effects for the film. Post-production began on October 5, 2012.[25] Some filming took place in the Buckinghamshire countryside.[25]
Re-shoots
John Lee Hancock assisted Stromberg with re-shoots for the film. Hancock, who had just finished overseeing the final post-production stages of Saving Mr. Banks, was approached by Roth, with whom both had worked on Snow White and the Huntsman.
Roth said: "He's not directing. He wrote pages, and I hired a
first-time director, and it's good to have him on set." Roth was asked
why a "film of this magnitude was entrusted to a novice director", and
he noted that Stromberg won Academy Awards for production design on Avatar and Alice in Wonderland.
Roth said: "The movie is gorgeous to look at, and the last 75 minutes
are really entertaining. The issue is the opening, which is being
re-shot over eight days."[26]
Music
James Newton Howard was hired to score the film in October 2012.[27] On January 23, 2014, it was announced that recording artist Lana Del Rey would be covering the song "Once Upon a Dream", from the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty as the title song for Maleficent.[28][29] Del Rey was handpicked by Angelina Jolie to perform the song.[30] The single was released on January 26 and was made available for free for a limited time through Google Play.[31][32]
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