Tag: Cinderella

  • Camila Cabello receives praises from ‘Cinderella’ director Kay Cannon

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Ahead of the release of ‘Cinderella’, director Kay Cannon heaped praises on singer Camila Cabello, who will be seen essaying the titular role in the musical comedy.

    “I believed that Camila was Cinderella. I felt her warmth and sincerity, and I could see right away that she had big dreams. She has great comedic timing. I was instantly won over,” Cannon said.

    She also opened up about her experience of directing ‘Cinderella’.

    ALSO READ | Cinderella movie review: A multi-racial retelling of the story with a feminist tinge

    “I’ve never been much of a fan of the original Cinderella. It feels like a bunch of women being mean to each other. I wanted to create a version of this fairy tale I could watch with my kid and we could be inspired by. The fairy tale was conceived by a man and it’s been told and retold primarily by men. On the concept of how behind every successful woman, there is a man! I tell it through my point of view,” she added.

    The new rendition of ‘Cinderella’ follows the journey of a girl who does not need a Prince to save her. It will come out on September 3, exclusively available for Amazon Prime Video users. 

  • Everybody gets their happily ever after in ‘Cinderella’: Director Kay Cannon

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: In the modern reimagining of “Cinderella”, every character and not just the titular protagonist gets the chance to follow their dreams and get their own happily ever after, says director Kay Cannon.

    Cannon, who has also adapted the Charles Perrault story for screen, presents a more inclusive, feminist and humorous version of the fairytale that has seen multiple adaptations on screen and stage. For the 47-year-old writer-filmmaker her “north star” was that the motivations of Cinderella, who aspires to be a dressmaker, don’t change right from the beginning to the end of the movie.

    Instead it’s the people around Cinderella, played finely by singer Camilla Cabello in her feature film debut, including her stepmother Vivian (Idina Menzel), who start seeing things in a new perspective.

    “The big theme of the movie is to have dreams and actively being able to go after them. Not just for Cinderella, but for everybody. That’s what I was trying to show that everybody should go after their dreams and we should be equal in that way. So, there are just different happy ever afters for all those characters,” Cannon told PTI in a Zoom interview from Los Angeles.

    “The big difference in the storytelling, for me, was to give all the other characters a more three-dimensional vibe so they are not so arched. We are not into giving some form of punishment (as a moral of the story),” the filmmaker, who made her directorial debut with the 2018 comedy film “Blockers”, said.

    While there are villains in real life too, people could “grow” if they make an effort to empathise with each other, she added.

    “If we can understand how they were raised, what their point of view was, even if the people disagree the most, if we could have empathy and understanding, then we can grow. I hope people sing, dance and laugh and think ‘you know what, people should be allowed to have dreams. It’s not actually a bad idea’, and then watch the film again,” he added.

    When Cannon boarded the project as the writer-director, she said she knew right away that she wanted the film to be set in “an inclusive and multicultural kingdom which was also steeped in tradition”.

    In “Cinderella”, the royal family is headed by former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan who plays King Rowan, with “Good Will Hunting” star Minnie Driver featuring as Queen Beatrice, Nicholas Galitzine essaying the role of Prince Robert, and Tallulah Greive portraying Princess Gwen.

    The director said that the specific detail about a white family being the royal family stemmed from the idea of an extremely multicultural kingdom which is on the precipice of change. “It is where the people of the kingdom are ahead of the royal family. Like big things are going to happen, we are at the tipping point. I wanted an equal amount of all the different races and genders,” she added.

    As someone who has dealt with humour in her past writing credits like the “Pitch Perfect” films and the Fox series “New Girl”, starring Zooey Deschanel, it was only natural that comedy was a bedrock in Cannon’s “Cinderella”.

    “It was very important for me to put comedy in the film because there have been so many great retellings of the fairytale through the years in movies and even musicals. For me, it was like comedy is going to make it different. If I could squeak out a bunch of laughs while also trying to tell a modernised story, that would be the difference.

    ” Growing up, Cannon said she found herself more connected to stories like Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi classic “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” as opposed to “Cinderella”. “I liked the story of ‘Cinderella’ but didn’t gravitate towards it. I was not a princess-y girl who would wear dresses but my friends did. That’s because I couldn’t relate to her (Cinderella) being blonde haired and blue eyed. I’m dark haired and brown eyed. I was more of an ‘ET’ kind of a girl,” she said.

    After she finished working on the movie, Cannon said her mother bought her the original Cinderella book with “a really cool, old cover”. “They are kind of reminding me of what it was,” she added.

    But how much messaging is too much? Describing the process as “a bit of dance”, the director said all in all the team got close to hitting the right tenor. “In the previews, the audience will tell you if something goes too far, they are like ‘We get it’…There were times when I would get notes like ‘You’re just hitting it over the head too much’ and I would pull back for sure. But then a part of me would say I don’t really know if people know what the struggle is unless you label it,” she said.

    The blend of contemporary songs, ranging from the covers of the greatest hits by Freddy Mercury, Madonna, Janet Jackson and Jennifer Lopez to the original tracks sung by cast members, and dance sequences tie up the two worlds of real and magical neatly, Cannon said.

    Mychael Danna and Jessica Rose Weiss have been credited for the music. Emmy winner Billy Porter’s shining magical act as Fab G, Cinderella’s genderless fairy godparent, lent a “bigger fairytale feeling” to the story, she added.

    “Breaking out into songs and dance makes it feel fantastical and fairytale-like. And yet the songs are very modern that we all know the words to. So (we needed a soundtrack) to bridge that grounded, realistic feeling with a more fantastical fairytale vibe. I just sort of vacillated between those two things,” the director said.

    “Cinderella” will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on September 3.

  • Emerald Fennell opens up on her ‘Cinderella’ challenge

    By IANS
    LOS ANGELES: Actress-writer Emerald Fennell enjoyed the challenge of finding Cinderella’s personality when penning a new musical adaptation of the fairytale.

    Fennell has joined hands with Andrew Lloyd-Webber on a new musical version of the classic fairytale and one of the first problems she encountered was how few defining traits the central character has, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

    “Who was Cinderella exactly? Arguably the most famous heroine in literature, and I could hardly think of a single personality trait. She was very good at housework, very good at singing to small animals, very good at being meek and quiet and forbearing, but she wasn’t exactly a thrill-ride of charisma,” Fennell said.

    She added: “After centuries of sweeping the chimney, she’d been reduced to little more than a bottle blonde with a martyr complex. Luckily, it takes one to know one so I was up for the challenge.”

    The actress-writer tagged Prince Charming a royal wet blanket and shared Cinderella was making a shoddy romantic decision in falling for him.

    “There was also a bit of a heart-throb problem in the shape of royal wet blanket and fairytales’ most famous foot fetishist, Prince Charming,” she wrote in an article for The Times newspaper.

    She added: “It’s not encouraging when a love interest gets confused the moment a woman changes clothes. We’ve all made shoddy romantic decisions, but few of us would actually marry the man who can’t remember your name the morning after a party. Poor Cinderella — the years of stepmotherly neglect had clearly taken their toll on her self-esteem.”

    The biggest obstacle the 35-year-old star faced in her writing was tackling it’s “undeniably problematic central message” about beauty.

    She said: “But more than any of this, the hardest thing to get around was the undeniably problematic central message of the story: change yourself entirely, make yourself over, become beautiful by any means necessary, and you will be worthy of love.”

    “Fairytales aren’t supposed to be lectures — they are hardly the pinnacle of feminist storytelling — but at the same time it would be nice to believe that a happy ending wasn’t dependant on waist-to-hip ratio or the size of one’s feet,” said the actress.

    Fennell added: “So rather than shy away from the ickiness of Cinderella’s central premise, we wanted to interrogate it. Why is it that makeover tales are so endlessly popular and so insidiously seductive? It wasn’t disturbing how outdated the message of Cinderella seemed; to the contrary, it has never felt so worryingly relevant.”

  • Camila Cabello-starrer ‘Cinderella’ to hit Amazon Prime Video on September 3

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: Singer-actor Camila Cabello’s “Cinderella” movie will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on September 3, the streamer announced on Thursday. The musical retelling of the classic fairy tale has been written and directed by Kay Cannon, best known for creating ‘Pitch Perfect’ franchise.

    “Cinderella” marks the acting debut of Cabello, known for hit songs such as “Senorita” and “Havana”, the streaming service said in a statement. The musical fairytale centres on an orphan who longs to meet her prince charming.

    Emmy-winning star Billy Porter is portraying Cinderella’s fairy godparent and Idina Menzel is playing her evil stepmother. The cast also features Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Robert, Pierce Brosnan as King Rowan and Minnie Driver as Queen Beatrice.

    The highly anticipated musical incorporates pop songs from contemporary global artists and original songs by Cabello and Menzel. “Cinderella” was previously set to release in theatres but after multiple delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, Hollywood studio Sony Pictures opted to license the film to Amazon.

    The movie has been produced by Leo Pearlman, James Corden, Jonathan Kadin and Shannon McIntosh, and executive producers are Louise Rosner and Josephine Rose.

  • Cinderella to premiere on Amazon Prime Video

    By Express News Service
    Sony Pictures’ Cinderella, starring pop star Camila Cabello as the titular princess, will go for a direct digital premiere, in concurrence with the current trend.

    The film will skip a theatrical release and will be streamed on Amazon Prime Video, sometime later this year.

    According to reports, Sony was planning a July release in cinema halls, but due to the coronavirus pandemic the studio had chosen to license the film to Amazon Prime. Kay Cannon, best known for his Pitch Perfect movie franchise, has written and directed the Cinderella iteration. The musical fairytale will trace the journey of an orphan who longs to meet her prince charming.

    Billy Porter is portraying Cinderella’s fairy godparent and Idina Menzel is playing her evil stepmother. The cast also includes Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Robert, Pierce Brosnan as King Rowan and Minnie Driver as Queen Beatrice.

    The film marks Cabello’s acting debut. She has also crooned original songs for the movie along with Menzel.

  • Camila Cabello’s ‘Cinderella’ to premiere on Amazon Prime Video

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: Sony Pictures’ “Cinderella”, starring pop star Camila Cabello as the titular princess, will dodge theatrical release and go for a digital premiere on streaming platform Amazon Prime Video later this year.

    According to Deadline, Sony was planning a July release for the movie in cinema halls, but due to the less footfall in theatres amid the coronavirus pandemic the studio opted to license the film to Amazon Prime.

    Kay Cannon, best known for creating “Pitch Perfect” franchise, has written and directed the “Cinderella” retelling.

    The musical fairytale centres on an orphan who longs to meet her prince charming.

    Billy Porter is portraying Cinderella’s fairy godparent and Idina Menzel is playing her evil stepmother.

    The cast also features Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Robert, Pierce Brosnan as King Rowan and Minnie Driver as Queen Beatrice.

    The film marks Cabello’s acting debut.

    She has also crooned original songs for the movie along with Menzel.