Maleficent (2014)

Film Type:

Feature

Language:

English

Colour Info:

Color

Sound Mix:

Datasat Digital Sound, Dolby Digital

Camera:

ARRI ALEXA Plus, ARRI ALEXA Studio

Frame Rate:

24 fps

Aspect Ratio:

2.35:1

Stereoscopy:

No

Archival Source:

QubeVault

Taglines:

Don't believe the fairy tale
Evil has a beginning

Movie Connection(s):

Follows: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (English)

Filming Locations:

Trivia:

Maleficent got her own MAC Cosmetics line to coincide with the film starring Angelina Jolie. This is the first motion picture collaboration for MAC. The limited-edition collection includes 11 stockkeeping units, including face, eye, lip and nail products.

Patrick Stewart was considered to play a role in this movie.

Jude Law was considered to play King Stefan before Sharlto Copley was cast.

On May 12, 2009, it was revealed that Brad Bird was developing a live-action motion picture based on Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty, retold from the point of view of Maleficent with Angelina Jolie starring as Maleficent. In January 2010, it was rumored that Tim Burton was to direct the film. Reports surfaced online in May 2011 stating that Burton had left the project to focus on his other upcoming projects and Disney began to look for a replacement director, with David Yates being cited as a potential candidate due to his experience with the fantasy genre, having directed the final four Harry Potter films. On January 6, 2012, Disney announced that Robert Stromberg will direct the film.

Richard D Zanuck was offered to produce the film, prior to his sudden death in 2012.

Maleficent marks the live action film debut of Paul Dini, who is one of the most influential and greatest figures of animation in the art form's history, due to his highly acclaimed work on Batman, Superman, Animaniacs, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Tiny Toon Adventures, Batman Beyond, and Justice League.

Logan Marshall-Green, George Blagden, Gael García Bernal, and Jim Sturgess were considered for the role that eventually went to Sam Riley.

Emma Thompson and Judi Dench were considered for the roles of the fairies.

Two of the respective actresses playing Young Maleficent and Young Princess Aurora, Isobelle Molloy and Eleanor Worthington Cox, both played the title role in the London production of Matilda the Musical.

Maleficent marked the first time that Elle Fanning has appeared in a film opposite Angelina Jolie, after starring opposite Brad Pitt, Jolie's fiancée, in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

On the second day of the 2013 Disney D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center, Saturday, August 10, 2013, Angelina Jolie admitted that she scarred little kids while in costume on the set of Maleficent, with one kid actually said, "Mommy, please get the mean witch to stop talking to me." She adds that her daughter, Vivienne, played young Aurora, and was the only kid who wasn't scared of her. Apparently she was the only kid actress who they could get that wasn't scared to be on set with her.

Angelina Jolie also said that "having a director (Robert Stromberg) coming from the world of production design really helped pull me into the fairy tale world. The film is beautiful but also has a sexy, dark edge because the story is coming from the point of view of a villain."

This is the first film project with Walt Disney Pictures for Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Brenton Thwaites, Juno Temple, Miranda Richardson, Imelda Staunton, writer Paul Dini, and editor Rick Pearson.

This is the first collaboration film project with Don Hahn and Linda Woolverton since The Lion King. In fact, Woolverton was chosen to co-write the script not just because of her work on Alice in Wonderland, but also for her work on Disney animated classics Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, where Hahn and Woolverton got along very well on both of the productions.

Two-time Academy Award-nominated and two-time Golden Globe-winning producer Don Hahn was chosen to produce this film due to his work on Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Little Matchgirl and Waking Sleeping Beauty, as well as being a tremendous admirer and enthusiast of the Disney legacy himself. He was also one of the most influential and important people to work at Walt Disney Animation Studios and to come from the "Disney Renaissance". This is also the first time that he has produced a live action feature film since the lackluster The Haunted Mansion.

Maleficent marks the directorial debut of Robert Stromberg, after serving as a visual effects supervisor on numerous films, including Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and, more significantly, as a production designer of Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, and Oz the Great and Powerful; the first two films earned him consecutive Academy Awards for Best Production Design.

Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, who portrays Princess Aurora as a young girl, is the daughter of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

Angelina Jolie was definitely interested to be in the movie to begin with. She repeatedly stated it was because of many reasons: 1) She grew up on Disney movies as a child, especially Sleeping Beauty; she was quite fond of the character Maleficent: "Since I was a little girl, Maleficent was always my favorite," Jolie said. "I was terrified of her, but I was also drawn to her. I wanted to know more about her. She had this elegance and grace, yet she was wonderfully, deliciously cruel" 2) She wanted to a movie in which her children can go see her in, as well as the fact that her children really also wanted her to be in the movie, 3) The beauty, warmth, complexity and strong intelligence of the script and 4) she can really identify and relate herself to the character of Maleficent. In fact, Jolie also served as an executive producer on the film.

All the actors and actresses in Maleficent were partly chosen to be in the movie based on their uncanny resemblances and/or likeness to their respective character counterparts in Disney's Sleeping Beauty.