Ordinarily, news of a spin-off movie from a live-action Disney remake wouldn't exactly be the hottest news in town (no offence Gaston.) However, new
Ordinarily, news of a spin-off movie from a live-action Disney remake wouldn’t exactly be the hottest news in town (no offence Gaston.) However, news of a spin-off movie from a live-action Disney remake being directed by one third of The Lonely Island and co-written by three thirds of last year’s positively hilarious The Naked Gun reboot… well that’s something to shout about. Deadline is reporting that Akiva Schaffer is reteaming with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand to tackle Stepsisters, a movie which will — you guessed it! — give Cinderella‘s hissable twosome Anastasia and Drisella the spotlight in their own feature film.
Now, technically speaking, it’s unclear whether Stepsisters is a spin-off of Kenneth Branagh’s Lily James and Richard Madden starring 2015 movie (in which Sophie McShera and Holliday Grainger played Drisella and Anastasia), or if it’s a live-action movie directly spinning off from the OG 1950 Disney animation. Regardless, we do know that Schaffer, Gregor, and Mand — who’ve previously delivered the goods for Disney with 2022’s underrated, lol-filled Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers — are retooling this take on Cinderella’s spiteful siblings from an original script by Tangled scribe Michael Montemayor. We also know, in news that will come as a surprise to approximately nobody, that this isn’t about to be some gritty, horror-inflected pivot from Disney (for a horrifying ugly stepsister tale, give Oscar nominated Norwegian body horror The Ugly Stepsister a try): this is very much a firmly comedic take on Drisella and Anastasia.
The prospect of an Akiva Schaffer helmed riff on Cinderella‘s dreadful side-villains is undoubtedly an stimulating one, and fits with where the House of Mouse’s energy is being focused just now. Stepsisters joins a pipeline that already includes a Moana live-action remake, the aforementioned Gaston movie, a live-action Tangled retooling, a non-animated Lilo & Stitch 2, and a Paul King Prince Charming joint. Here’s hoping these movies and the sedate bank they will surely make might also support fund more original movies too as up-to-date Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro sets out his vision for the company’s future. Every day’s Christmas Eve, folks!
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