If you ask me, the best way to continue telling Cinderella stories is more films like The Ugly Stepsister. Obviously, Disney has more conventional plans. Deadline reports that a live-action spinoff movie, titled Stepsisters, is in the works and will be directed by The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer.
Schaffer will be joined on Stepsisters by writers Dan Gregor & Doug Mand, who worked with him previously on Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. The trio will rework the original screenplay by Tangled writer Michael Montemayor. A busy comedy director, Schaffer scored a modest hit with last year’s The Naked Gun reboot, and also directed Hot Rod, The Watch, and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
Schaffer is pals with fellow Lonely Islanders Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone, who will be producing through their Party Over Here label.
You’ll recall that Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo (Bridesmaids) were writing their own evil stepsisters movie, but that’s apparently off the table. I guess the slipper didn’t fit.
Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters are Anastasia and Drizella, who torment and demean the girl who they treat as if she’s beneath them, but deep down they are actually jealous of her beauty. They destroy her dress, and try to do anything to win the Prince’s affection away from Cinderella.
Sounds like another Disney villain reclamation project, as they’ve done previously with Maleficent and Cruella. Anastasia and Drizella might be the toughest sell of them all, though, because they are just nasty through and through. We’ll have to see what Schaffer and crew can come up with to have us sympathize with them…or not. Perhaps they’ll include elements of the Disney sequels, in which Anastasia falls in love and finds redemption?
