After Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland inexplicably made over a billion in the box office, Hollywood has been scrambling to get on the fairytale/classic story bandwagon, resulting in a huge amount of adaptations and remakes going into production. Last time I checked, there were about four thousand Snow Whites and at least two Wizard of Oz movies in production (maybe a slight exaggeration) all hoping to cash in on some of the Alice money. Sleeping Beauty is another one, and indeed young-girl-of-the-moment Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) is in the running to play her in an upcoming adaptation of the story. However, there is another Sleeping Beauty on the way, one which doesn't look like a fairytale in the traditional sense....Sucker Punch star Emily Browning is the lead in what, to me, looks like a very Kubrickian story of a young prostitute. The plot synopsis (via slashfilm) tells of:
A haunting erotic fairy tale about Lucy, a student who drifts into prostitution and finds her niche as a woman who sleeps, drugged, in a ‘Sleeping Beauty chamber’ while men do to her what she can‘t remember the next morning.
For some reason I wouldn't be expecting any Disneyesque princes in this one. The film premieres at Cannes, and from the trailer you can see that it definitely looks promising - style wise especially. Browning replaced Mia Waschiowska in the role, and her previous work hasn't really stretched her acting wise, but this could be the film that elevates her above her Girl With Guns reputation from Sucker Punch. Plus, thanks to Inception, dreams are all the rage too so this should go down a treat. No word on a release date yet but you can check out the stunning trailer below.
