Maleficent (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Maleficent
A vengeful fairy dressed black with her black horns standing and title below
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Robert Stromberg
Produced by Joe Roth
Screenplay by Linda Woolverton
Based on

Disney's Sleeping Beauty and

La Belle au bois dormant written by Charles Perrault

Starring

Angelina Jolie
Sharlto Copley
Elle Fanning
Sam Riley
Imelda Staunton
Juno Temple
Lesley Manville

Narrated by Janet McTeer

Music by James Newton Howard
Cinematography Dean Semler
Edited by

Chris Lebenzon
Richard Pearson

Production
company

Walt Disney Pictures

Roth Films

Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Release date

May 28, 2014 (El Capitan Theatre)

May 30, 2014 (United States)

Running time
97 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $180�263 million[2]
Box office $758.5 million[3]

Maleficent is a 2014 American dark fantasy film directed by Robert Stromberg from a
screenplay by Linda Woolverton, and starring Angelina Jolie as the title character
with Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, and
Lesley Manville in supporting roles. Loosely inspired by Charles Perrault's
original fairy tale and Walt Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, the film
portrays the story from the perspective of the eponymous antagonist, depicting her
conflicted relationship with the princess and king of a corrupt kingdom.[4]

Walt Disney Pictures announced the film's development in 2010, with Joe Roth as
producer and Jolie, Don Hahn, and Michael Vieira as executive producers. Principal
photography took place between June and October 2012. The film's special screening
took place in London on May 9, 2014, at Kensington Palace.[5] Maleficent premiered
at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on May 28, 2014, and was released in the
United Kingdom that same day. The film was released in the United States on May 30,
2014 in the Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats, as well as in
conventional theaters.

While the film was met with mixed reviews from critics, it earned praise for its
visuals, costumes, musical score and Jolie's performance. Overall, it was a
commercial success, having grossed over $758 million worldwide, becoming the
fourth-highest-grossing film of 2014 and the highest-grossing film starring Jolie.
The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design at the 87th
Academy Awards.

A sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, is in production and set for release on

October 18, 2019.
Contents

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
3.1 Writing
3.2 Filming
3.3 Re-shoots
3.4 Visual effects
4 Music
4.1 Track listing
5 Release
5.1 Marketing
5.2 Novel
5.3 Home media
6 Reception
6.1 Box office
6.1.1 Commercial analysis
6.2 Critical response
6.3 Accolades
7 Themes
7.1 Rape allegory
7.2 Capitalism and socialism
8 Sequel
9 References
10 External links

Plot

Maleficent is a powerful fairy living in the Moors, a magical forest realm

bordering a human kingdom. As a young girl, she meets and falls in love with a
human peasant boy named Stefan, whose love for Maleficent is overshadowed by his
ambition. As they become older the two grow apart and Maleficent becomes protector
of the Moors. When King Henry tries to conquer the Moors, Maleficent mortally
wounds him and forces him to retreat. As he lies dying, he declares that whoever
kills Maleficent will be named his successor and marry his daughter, Princess
Leila. Stefan visits Maleficent in the Moors. He drugs her, but cannot bring
himself to kill her. Instead, he cuts off her wings with iron, which is lethal to
fairies, and presents them to the king. Devastated by Stefan's betrayal, Maleficent
turns the Moors into a dark kingdom. She finds a raven named Diaval to act as her
wings, spy and confidant. She transforms him into different forms as needed,
including human.

After some time, Diaval informs Maleficent that Stefan, now king, is hosting a
christening for his newborn daughter, Aurora. Bent on revenge, Maleficent arrives
uninvited and curses the infant princess: on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick
her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep from which
she will never awaken. When Stefan begs for mercy, Maleficent mocks him and offers
an antidote: the curse can only be broken by true love's kiss, which Maleficent and
Stefan are sure is non-existent. Fearing for his daughter's safety, Stefan sends
Aurora to live with three pixies�Knotgrass, Thistlewit, and Flittle�until the day
after her sixteenth birthday, while he destroys all the spinning wheels in the
kingdom and hides their remnants in the castle dungeon. He sends his armies to find
and kill Maleficent, but she surrounds the Moors with an impenetrable wall of
thorns. King Stefan slips into madness and paranoia, trying to prevent the curse,
even neglecting to see his wife on her deathbed.

Despite her initial dislike for Aurora, Maleficent begins to care for her when the
bumbling and neglectful pixies fail to do so. After a brief meeting with the young
Aurora, Maleficent watches over her from afar. When Aurora is fifteen, she
encounters Maleficent. Knowing that she is being watched over, she calls Maleficent
her "fairy godmother". Maleficent tries desperately to undo the curse but is
unsuccessful, as the curse proves to be unbreakable by any means other than true
love's kiss. In the forest, Aurora meets Prince Philip, and the two are attracted
to each other. On the day before Aurora's sixteenth birthday, Aurora tells
Maleficent that she would like to live with her in the Moors. When Aurora returns
to the cottage, the pixies inadvertently tell Aurora of her past. Having learned of
Maleficent's true identity, Aurora runs to her father's castle.

After a brief reunion with his daughter, Stefan locks her away in a room for her
own safety while setting up a plan to kill Maleficent. However, the power of the
curse draws Aurora to the dungeon, where a spinning wheel magically reassembles
itself. She pricks her finger and falls into a deep sleep, fulfilling the curse.
Maleficent, intent on saving Aurora, abducts Phillip and infiltrates Stefan's
castle, but Phillip's kiss fails to awaken Aurora. At her bedside, Maleficent
apologizes to Aurora and kisses her forehead. Aurora awakens, as Maleficent's
motherly feelings towards her count as true love. However, as Maleficent and Aurora
attempt to leave, they are ambushed by Stefan and his guards, with an iron net
dropping on her. Maleficent transforms Diaval into a dragon, and he battles
Stefan's guards, but he is eventually caught as well. Stefan taunts Maleficent, who
is dizzy and sick from the iron, his former love for her fully gone. But before he
can deliver a killing blow, Aurora finds Maleficent's wings and releases them. They
fly to Maleficent and reattach themselves. Maleficent carries Stefan to the top of
the castle's highest tower and beats him easily and quickly in battle, but cannot
bring herself to kill him. Stefan attacks her as she turns away, however, and both
plummet from the tower, entwined. Maleficent opens her wings and Stefan loses his
grip, falling to his death.

In the end, Maleficent returns the Moors to its former glory, and Aurora is crowned
queen to unify the two kingdoms. Prince Phillip stands by as she is crowned and the
two jovially smile at one another.
Cast
Angelina Jolie (left), Sharlto Copley (center) and Sam Riley (right)

Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, a fairy and the former queen of the Moors.
Maleficent is loosely based on the Wicked fairy godmother from the original fairy
tale.
 Isobelle Molloy as Young Maleficent
Ella Purnell as Teen Maleficent
Sharlto Copley as Stefan[6]
Michael Higgins as Young Stefan
Jackson Bews as Teen Stefan
Elle Fanning as Aurora
Vivienne Jolie-Pitt as Aurora (5 yrs)
Eleanor Worthington Cox as Aurora (8 yrs)
Sam Riley as Diaval[6]
Imelda Staunton as Knotgrass[6]
Juno Temple as Thistlewit[7]
Lesley Manville as Flittle[6]
Brenton Thwaites as Prince Phillip[8]
Kenneth Cranham as King Henry[6][9]
Hannah New as Princess Leila

Production

Angelina Jolie had long been attached to the project since March 2010, when Tim
Burton, who had tentatively planned to direct, chose not to pursue it.[10][11]
Jolie's desire to play this role stemmed from her love of the character when she
was a little girl.[12] Linda Woolverton was commissioned to write the script for
the film.[13] On January 6, 2012, Disney announced that Robert Stromberg, the
production designer of Alice in Wonderland and Oz the Great and Powerful, would
direct the film.[14] Joe Roth, Don Hahn, and Richard D. Zanuck were hired as
producers, although Zanuck died later that year.[15] Roth said the film would not
have been made if Jolie had not agreed to take the title role: "She seemed like the
only person who could play the part. There was no point in making the movie if it
wasn't her."[16]

In March 2012, Elle Fanning was reported to be in talks for the role of Princess
Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty.[17][18] Her casting was officially announced in May
2012, along with Sharlto Copley as the male lead, King Stefan, Princess Aurora's
father, then described as the half-human, half-fairy son of a human king, along
with Imelda Staunton; Miranda Richardson as Queen Ulla, then described as a fairy
queen who is Maleficent's aunt with a dislike of her niece; Kenneth Cranham as a
king; Sam Riley as Diaval, a raven who changes into human form and is Maleficent's
right hand; and Lesley Manville.[6]

Director Stromberg highlighted the "wonderful" contrast between the two lead
actresses, Elle Fanning and Angelina Jolie, calling the character of Aurora the
"beacon of light" that he was looking forward to blending with the darkness of
Maleficent.[19]
Writing
I was really moved by the script from first reading. It was like uncovering a great
mystery. We all know the story of Sleeping Beauty and we all know Maleficent and
what happened at the christening because we've all grown up with that. But what
we've never known is, what happened before?

�Angelina Jolie[20]

Linda Woolverton's screenplay went through at least 15 versions as the film

progressed in the production.[21] Director Robert Stromberg said: "I met many times
with Linda Woolverton, the writer. We did lots of roundtable discussions and sort
of cut out the fat as much as we could and sort of purified the storyline as much
as we could".[22] In some earlier versions of the story, Stefan was the half-human,
half-fairy bastard son of King Henry. The version of the screenplay which went into
shooting originally included two characters called Queen Ulla and King Kinloch, the
fairy queen and the fairy king of the Moors, and the aunt and uncle of Maleficent.
[6] Miranda Richardson and Peter Capaldi were cast and shot the Queen Ulla and King
Kinloch scenes, but their roles were cut in the editing process together with more
than 15 minutes of the first act of the film. Stromberg said: "We spent a bit more
time originally in the fairy world before we got into the human side of things ...
we wanted to get it [the film] under two hours. So we cut about fifteen minutes out
of the first act, and then that had to be seamed together with some pretty basic
reshoots."[23]

Stromberg later claimed in an interview that he employed an "age-old" emotional

storytelling for the film and called it "the biggest thrill" against all technology
advances.[19] "And the way we play with that is we have somebody who's perhaps in
love but betrayed and doesn't believe that true love exists. So the moral to it is
we can all feel dark ourselves but not to lose hope because there is light in
places where we might not be expecting", he explained.[19]
Filming

Principal photography began on June 13, 2012.[24] Some filming took place in the
Buckinghamshire countryside.[25]
Re-shoots

John Lee Hancock assisted Stromberg with re-shoots for the film. Hancock, who had
just finished overseeing the final post-production stages of Saving Mr. Banks, was
approached by producer Joe Roth, with whom he had worked on Snow White and the
Huntsman. Roth said: "He's not directing. He wrote pages, and I hired a first-time
director, and it's good to have him on set." Roth was asked why a "film of this
magnitude was entrusted to a novice director", and he noted that Stromberg won
Academy Awards for production design on Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. Roth said:
"The movie is gorgeous to look at, and the last 75 minutes are really entertaining.
The issue was the opening, which was re-shot over eight days."[26]
Visual effects

As a previous production designer, Stromberg sought to balance the use of practical

and computer-generated effects. For example, while Maleficent's horns and facial
prosthetics were created by makeup artist Rick Baker, Digital Domain took facial
capture of Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, and Juno Temple for the three pixies
to be generated with high authenticity with the help of special rigging by Disney
Research in Zurich.[19] For the visuals, Stromberg wanted to make it "a bit more
grounded" and "not too surreal" because it could be distracting from the simplicity
of the story.[19] He also regretted not employing bigger sets and allowing actors
to work in a more tangible environment, on "real sets with real lights".[19]