Written by Rebecca Oldham. Media by Bekah Dothager.
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For the past few years, Hollywood has been reinventing our favorite fairy tales into brand new stories. The ABC brought to life the TV show “Once Upon A Time”, a collective story of favorite fairy tale characters all living side by side. The show is currently in its fifth season and is a fan favorite. Hollywood has also started creating live movie adaptations of favorite fairy tales. They made the very successful “Maleficent“, starring Angelina Jolie. This movie set the tone for all other adaptations as it created an unlikely twist for the evil witch. Since then, they have also made the live adaptation of “Cinderella“, where Helena Bonham Carter brought to life the Fairy Godmother, who taught us that glass was always the way to go when you pick out shoes.
The success of these two movies on the big screen have really set the ball rolling for new adaptations of other fairy tales. Since then, several movies have been announced and are in the works of being filmed. So far they have announced the making of “The Beauty and The Beast”, which will star Emma Watson as Belle. “Tarzan” will release in 2016. Rumor has it that this movie will capture Tarzan’s life after he is found and taken back to London. It is set to star Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan, Margot Robbie as Jane Porter and Christopher Waltz as captain Rom. The Jungle Book will be released on April 15, 2016, and the trailer is out now. It will star big names such as Scarlet Johansson, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley and Christopher Walken. Additionally, rumor has it that there will be a sequel to the 2010 Alice in Wonderland. Also, supposedly, Tim Burton signed on to do the live action film of Dumbo.
Also, for you mermaid lovers, there will be a new “The Little Mermaid”, which is in pre-production and still gathering its cast. According to IMDB, they have yet to cast Eric, Ariel’s love interest. They have also just announced that “Mulan” will now become a live adaptation as well. Casting has begun, but there is still no telling who will portray the main characters.
The new trend in Hollywood seems to be live adaptations of our favorite stories and it seems to be working. With the success of Maleficent and Cinderella, it just shows that everyone still loves the stories we grew up with. With the new twists and special effects, we will be on for a wild ride as these new adaptation start to his the big screen. Through amazing directors and incredible actors, we will see some great stories be brought to life in a new light.
Let us know what you think of these Adaptations! Who would be your casting for “The Little Mermaid” and “Mulan”?
This is all well and good, but I long to see the day when Hollywood can reach past the tales everyone knows and into the ones we don’t know so well. I want to see fairy tale films get to the point superhero films are at where they can put out a movie with a less famous character (like the Guardians of the Galaxy) and not be surprised when it makes a profit. When we start to see as many “Twelve Dancing Princesses” or “Jorinda and Joringel” or “Kate Crackernuts” movies as we do “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella” movies.