Maleficent Robert Stromberg

Development

It was about 2003, maybe, when were sitting around one day, asking, "Who is a really strong and interesting female character we can base a movie on," and somebody said "Maleficent," but I can't point out exactly who it was. It made sense, because she was this really popular villainess who is glamorous and like a runway model. Still, she's been wounded somehow in the past. We thought we could do a Wicked thing with Maleficent and show her backstory. That was just the germ of the idea and it sat in animation for a while. We did some development and some drawings on it, but then it went pretty quickly over to live-action, where it sat.

—Don Hahn, on developing the idea for Maleficent[34]

The idea for Maleficent was conceived during Don Hahn's meeting with the Disney's animation department in 2003, where it was pitched as an animation project revolving around the origin of the eponymous antagonist from Walt Disney's animated film Sleeping Beauty (1959).[35][36] The timing of the idea was inspired by the just-released Broadway musical Wicked.[34] While opening the musical adaptation of Mary Poppins in the West End of London in December 2004, Hahn met with Tim Burton to pitch him several movie ideas for Disney, including Maleficent, which Burton was instantly interested in.[37][38] Simultaneously, Sean Bailey (who was an independent producer at the time) began developing the same concept for a live-action feature, which he envisioned as a "Disney version of Michael Corleone in The Godfather. Have a character do something that's empirically terrible – curse a child – but set it up in such a way that you felt differently about it." Bailey wanted Angelina Jolie for the role of Maleficent and mentioned the idea during lunch with Jolie's manager, receiving a positive response within a few hours.[37] When Bailey presented his concept to the Disney executives, they told him about Hahn's project and suggested they team up.[39] Jolie's interest in the title role prompted the filmmakers to consider moving Maleficent from animation to live-action, which they did after Disney acquired Pixar and reshuffled the animation department in 2006.[35][40] The project was eventually suspended due to Burton being busy working on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Alice in Wonderland.[40][41]

By the summer of 2009, as Alice in Wonderland entered post-production, Burton renewed his interest in Maleficent.[42] Around the same time, Hahn approached Linda Woolverton (who had just collaborated with Burton on Alice) to write the script.[43] Burton dismissed his involvement with the film as a rumor in February 2010, but the following month, The Guardian reported that he would helm the project, with The Hollywood Reporter confirming Woolverton as the film's writer.[42][44][45] At that point, Richard D. Zanuck also joined the production as a producer (until his death in 2012).[36] After Woolverton boarded the project, the creative team (which included Woolverton, Burton, Hahn, and Zanuck) began developing the story, with several drafts made over the course of almost a year.[34][36] In November 2010, Burton confirmed that he would direct Maleficent, but by May 2011, he had withdrawn due to his commitment to Dark Shadows.[38][46][47] After Burton's departure, David Yates, Darren Aronofsky, and David O. Russell were considered to take over as director.[47][48][49] Guillermo del Toro also expressed interest in directing Maleficent, citing the original 1959 animated film as one of his favorite Disney features.[50] By September 2011, Joe Roth had joined the project as a producer, and in January 2012, Deadline Hollywood reported that Robert Stromberg (who had been the production designer on Alice in Wonderland) would helm Maleficent in his directorial debut.[51][52] Palak Patel (the film's executive producer) said that after finishing Alice, Stromberg "really wanted to direct. We said, 'Okay, but we've got Oz the Great and Powerful and we need a production designer. Why don't you do Oz, then we'll make a movie.' In the middle of shooting [Oz], Maleficent came in."[40]

Writing

After watching the [1959 animated] movie, I came up with some ideas that revealed more about her [Maleficent's] character. I created a past for her that leads to the singular moment in which she curses the baby Aurora and then takes us past that moment from Maleficent’s point of view through the ending of the film. But it’s a reinvention; it’s not just a retelling of the same story… The character really is fantastic and once we had Angelina Jolie, my task was to seamlessly meld the two into one to recreate a classic, but wholly unique Maleficent.

Linda Woolverton[3]

Linda Woolverton's screenplay went through at least 15 versions as the film progressed in production.[53] 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".[54] Paul Dini also performed rewrites on the project with Stromberg,[55] and was credited in early press.[56][57] In some earlier versions of the story, Stefan was the half-human, half-fairy bastard son of King Henry. The version of the screenplay that went into shooting originally included two characters called Queen Ulla and King Kinloch, the fairy queen and fairy king of the Moors and the aunt and uncle of Maleficent.[22] 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 15 minutes out of the first act, and then that had to be seamed together with some pretty basic reshoots."[58]

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.[14] "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.[14]

Casting

Angelina Jolie was considered for the role of Maleficent as early as when Burton was attached to the project, and was always the only choice,[41] with Roth stating that the film would not have been made if she had refused.[59] By March 2010, Jolie entered negotiations,[45][60] and in late January 2012, she signed on for the role,[39] which she personally confirmed the following month, during the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival.[4] Jolie initially doubted the possibility of making a film about "somebody who curses a baby", but still became interested in the idea because of her love for Maleficent since she was little and ended up being "very moved by the script".[61] Her decision to accept the role was also influenced by the persuasions of her children[4] and brother.[62] Additionally, Jolie was hired as the film's executive producer[63] and was largely involved in all aspects of bringing her character to life, from script writing to costume design.[38] Particularly, she worked closely with Woolverton to ensure that her version of Maleficent would retain enough of her animated counterpart's villainous nature,[64] as Woolverton leaned towards the more sympathetic side of the character.[53]

In March 2012, Deadline Hollywood reported that Elle Fanning was in talks for the role of Aurora.[12] She was the only choice of the filmmakers after they saw her performance in Super 8 (2011).[41] According to Roth, he brought Fanning to the studio "literally the next day, told her all about the project, told her about Angie [Jolie], and she said 'I'm in'."[65] Later that month, Jim Sturgess and Gael García Bernal were reported to be trying out for the role of Diaval, with Jude Law, who had previously co-starred with Jolie in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), in negotiations to play Stefan.[66] Sharlto Copley was eventually cast as Stefan in May 2012,[18] and a few days later, The Hollywood Reporter announced the casting of Imelda Staunton as Knotgrass, Kenneth Cranham as King Henry, Sam Riley as Diaval, Lesley Manville as Flittle, and Miranda Richardson as Queen Ulla, who was eventually cut from the film.[22] On the same day, Variety reported that India Eisley was set to portray teen Maleficent,[67] and later that month, Juno Temple and Brenton Thwaites were cast as Thistlewit and Prince Philip, respectively.[23][28] In August 2012, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Jolie's real-life daughter with Brad Pitt, was announced to play 5-year-old Aurora.[68] She was cast due to being the only child on the film set who wasn't frightened of Jolie in a full Maleficent costume.[62] Jolie also offered the role to her other daughter, Shiloh, but she refused.[69] Another two children of Jolie, Pax and Zahara, ended up appearing as extras in the christening scene.[15]

In September 2012, Michael Higgins was reported to portray young Stefan.[21] Toby Regbo was originally cast in the role, but after the filmmakers decided that they needed a younger performer for the part, he was replaced by Higgins.[70] The following month, Eleanor Worthington Cox was cast as 8-year-old Aurora,[16] and Isobelle Molloy was confirmed to play young Maleficent in November 2012.[9] Molloy was brought to the attention of the filmmakers by the casting director, who saw her performance as the title character in the West End production of Matilda the Musical,[71] and ended up doing three auditions, including a screen test, before she was cast.[72] In December 2012, Peter Capaldi confirmed his casting as King Kinloch,[73] who, like Richardson's character, was cut from the final version of the film.[74] In October 2013, after it was decided to reshoot the opening scenes of the film,[75] Ella Purnell, who originally auditioned for the role of Aurora,[10] replaced Eisley in the role of teen Maleficent.[76] Purnell's casting was personally approved by Jolie,[10] although they never met in person during the film's production.[77]

Filming

Principal photography began on June 13, 2012, at Pinewood Studios.[78][79] Some filming took place in the Buckinghamshire countryside near Turville.[80]

Costume design

Anna B. Sheppard, who had previously worked on Schindler’s List (1993) and The Pianist (2002), was in charge of creating costumes for the film.[81] She was hired late in pre-production and had about eight weeks before filming began to create all the costumes from scratch,[81] which she described as "a lot of pain, a lot of work, a lot of indecision".[82] Sheppard drew inspiration for her designs from French and Italian art of the Renaissance period, including paintings, sketches, and sculptures,[3] as well as from Alexander McQueen clothing collections.[83] Overall, Sheppard and her team ended up creating more than two thousand costumes by hand.[3]

For the character of Maleficent, a separate group within the costume department, named Team Maleficent, was formed to focus solely on her outfits.[82]

Reshoots

John Lee Hancock assisted Stromberg with reshoots for the film. Hancock, who had just finished overseeing the final postproduction 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 reshot over eight days."[84]

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.[14] 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.[14] He also regretted not employing bigger sets and allowing actors to work in a more tangible environment, on "real sets with real lights".[14]

Music

James Newton Howard was hired to score the film in October 2012. The film marked Howard's first live-action Disney film score, as he had previously scored three films from Walt Disney Animation Studios which include Dinosaur (2000), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and Treasure Planet (2002).[85] On January 23, 2014, recording artist Lana Del Rey was announced as covering the song "Once Upon a Dream", from the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty, as the title song for Maleficent. The song "Once Upon a Dream" is based on the Grand Waltz from ballet Sleeping Beauty written by Russian composer Tchaikovsky.[86][87] The single was released on January 26, 2014, during the 56th Grammy Awards and was made available for free for a limited time through Google Play.[88][89] The soundtrack album, featuring Howard's score and Del Rey's cover of "Once Upon a Dream" was released on May 26, 2014, by Walt Disney Records.[90]