Alice writer to pen Maleficent

Screenwriter Linda Woolverton is to re-team with Disney for the live-action Maleficent , a new take on Sleeping Beauty .

Having updated and reimagined Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland for the studio (to the sound of a lot of mulah), the writer will re-tell Sleeping Beauty’s story with a Wicked -style twist - from the perspective of evil queen Maleficent.

Word was earlier in the year that Tim Burton was eyeing the project as well, but now that he is producing (and possibly directing, jury’s still out) The Addams Family as well as directing Frankenweenie , we imagine he’s too busy.

Though Wolverton has been held accountable for some of the new Alice ’s creative shortcomings, she provided decent scripts for Disney’s Beauty And The Beast and The Lion King , which makes her an obvious choice for this.

Disney define the original Maleficent character as an “evil fairy responsible for all misfortune that befalls Stefan’s kingdom; even the merest killing frost bears her mark”, which makes her both very powerful and very mean.

Who do you fancy seeing in the role?

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.