Hot off hostingSaturday Night Livethis past weekend,Late NightstarEmma Thompsonis in early talks to joinEmma Stonein Disney’s live-action movieCruella, which tells the origin story of101 Dalmatiansvillain Cruella de Vil, Collider has confirmed.
Craig Gillespie(I, Tonya) is directing from a script byTony McNamaraandDana Fox.Marc PlattandKristin Burrare producing along withAndrew Gunn, and Disney will release the movie on Jun 10, 2025.
Set in London in the high fashion world of the 1970’s,Cruellafinds Stone playing a brilliant clothing designer who nonetheless toils as a lowly department store worker. One day, a posh woman known as the Baroness enters the store, wearing Cruella’s special locket that was given to her by her mother – one that Cruella lost on the same night her mother passed away at the Baroness' estate. She promptly decides she’ll do whatever it takes to get her locket back from the Baroness, including crashing her glitzy ball.
In the original 1961 animated classic, Cruella was a villain obsessed with capturing the titular dogs, and the new film will explain why dogs are so important to the character’s backstory. Cruella was previously played byGlenn Closein a 1996 live-action movie and its 2000 sequel.
Thompson, who won an Oscar for 1992’sHowards End, seems like a perfect fit to play the antagonist inCruella, and she’s no stranger to Disney fairy tales, having played Mrs. Potts in 2017’s live-action remake ofBeauty and the Beast. Thompson also starred oppositeTom Hanksin Disney’sSaving Mr. Banks, in which she playedMary PoppinsauthorP.L. Travers.
Thomspon next stars alongsideMindy Kalingin the Amazon Studios comedyLate Night, which is one of the best films I’ve seen all year. It hits theaters on June 7, the same day as Thompson’s other summer movie,Men in Black: International. She’s represented by CAA and Hamilton Hodell, and her casting was first reported byVariety.
