NEED TO KNOW
Disney+ is developing a new TV series adaptation of Ella Enchanted
Anne Hathaway, who starred in the 2004 movie adaptation, is attached as an executive producer
The film was very loosely based on the 1997 book of the same name
Ella Enchanted could be heading to screens in a brand new way.
PEOPLE confirms that Disney+ is in the early stages of developing a new TV series adaptation of Ella Enchanted, based on the 1997 novel of the same name. Anne Hathaway, who starred in the 2004 adaptation, is attached to executive produce the series. Ilana Wolpert is attached as writer, with Beth Schwartz listed as the showrunner.
Both Wolpert and Schwartz will also serve as executive producers of the series, along with Johnathan Rice and Hathaway’s husband, Adam Shulman, for Somewhere Pictures, as well as iGen Studios, which produced Netflix’s My Life With the Walter Boys. The series is co-produced by Miramax Television and Paramount Television Studios. Deadline first reported the news on May 18.
Hugh Dancy (left) and Anne Hathaway in ‘Ella Enchanted’
Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock
Disney’s logline for the in-development series reads: “When 16-year-old Ella of Frell — cursed at birth to obey every command — is sent to boarding school after her mother’s untimely death, she begins to uncover the truth about her curse, builds an unlikely found family, and deals with an extremely inconvenient crush on the prince of her kingdom.”
It’s likely that Hathaway’s version — which also starred Hugh Dancy as Prince Charmont, Cary Elwes as the evil Sir Edgar and Vivica A. Fox as Lucinda, who accidentally gave Ella her curse — will differ greatly from any new series. The 2004 movie, directed by Tommy O’Haver and written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, only loosely adapted the novel by Gail Carson Levine. It played with pop culture references, satirized fairy tales and even had multiple musical numbers.
‘Ella Enchanted’ by Gail Carson Levine
Credit: HarperCollins
Levine, 78, wrote back in 2009 that while she liked the movie, she regarded it “as a different entity from the book.” She praised Hathaway, now 43, as “the perfect Ella,” however. Levine’s book, which won a Newbery Honor in 1998, has a portion that takes place at a boarding school, where Ella is bullied by her classmates but connects with a best friend.
2004’s Ella Enchanted did not do well at the box office, but in the 22 years since its release has become a cult classic, thanks in part to its release on DVD.
Hathaway, who broke out with 2001’s The Princess Diaries, was 19 years old while making the original Ella Enchanted. She told Drew Barrymore on a 2023 episode of her eponymous talk show about how things got out of hand one night while making the movie in Ireland.
“I was really excited. I was Ella of Ella Enchanted, so I’m like, ‘I should throw a cast party and invite the crew and help everybody to know each other.’ So my cousin and I were living in this little apartment just outside of Dublin, two bedrooms, and we invited people,” she remembered.
“It was like that scene in Mean Girls where Cady is like, ‘Do you think I have enough cheese and crackers for six?’ and they were like, ‘Yeah, you’re good.’ Smash-cut to, I’m like, ‘Wow, the alcohol keeps coming! I’m not ordering it!’ Ireland,” Hathaway joked. “Someone just kept ordering alcohol and it just turned into this full-blown rager. It was so much fun.”
Read the original article on People
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