First official image of Angelina Jolie as Maleficent revealed

[ Click on the image to see it in hi-res ]

Disney has unveiled the first official image of Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, the wicked fairy who was the big bad in Sleeping Beauty .

Continuing the trend of reinventing fairytales for the cinema (which has seen sizeable box office returns for Alice In Wonderland and Snow White And The Huntsman ), Maleficent is pitching itself as the untold story.

Unsurprisingly, the filmmakers have cleaved closely to the look of Maleficent in the 1959 animation, with that black, horn-shaped headpiece the defining feature.

Rick Baker’s make-up work has sharpened Jolie’s already defined cheekbones, and contact lenses have given her eyes a rainbow hue.

The film is being directed by Robert Stromberg (an Oscar-winning production designer), from a script by Linda Woolverton ( The Lion King , Beauty And The Beast ). Jolie is among the executive producers on the project.

She’s flanked by an impressive supporting cast too, including Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple.

Maleficent will open in the US on 14 March 2013, with a UK release date to be confirmed.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.