Emma Stone to play iconic Disney villain Cruella De Vil in live-action film

The nostalgic spirit of remakes once again blesses Disney, as it’s in early stages of making a live-action movie titled Cruella starring Emma Stone.

Cruella De Vil is best known as the villain of the 101 Dalmatians, novel, and animated and live-action films. Her claim to fame is being a wealthy and cold-blooded woman intent on making a fur coat out of a pack of Dalmatians who cares little for the lives of the defenseless puppies. While donning a head of black and white hair and an already extravagant fur coat, it is her obsession with killing animals for their furs that has earned her the “cruel” in her name.

A live-action film is officially in the works titled Cruella, and we are here for it. Emma Stone will play the young Cruella De Vil, and Disney has now found a new director in I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie. They had initially appointed Alex Timbers of Broadway director-writing fame, but Deadline reports that scheduling conflicts with his upcoming Beetlejuice and Moulin-rouge projects have made it impossible, and Gillespie has readily signed up to the task.

As iconic as Cruella De Vil is amongst Disney villains, there is very little known about her origins. The creators of Cruella will have a lot of room for mapping out how she came to be since the original animated classic doesn’t say much about where she came from and why she is so greedy and spoiled.

If anything, the most we learned about De Vil was featured in The Once Upon a Time series. In OUAT, De Vil is a horror from the start as she is imprisoned in her room by her mother for being a sociopath and later manipulates a journalist that’s in love with her until he gives her powers over animals and she is freed.

While Glenn Close played Cruella De Vil in her fashion prime in the 1996 live-action film, Stone will actually be playing a younger Cruella during the 1980’s punk era. This will, in fact, be the story that explains how she became the ruthless dog-hating monster she becomes (and let’s not forget stylish). It’s a little too soon to know what avenue this story will take but I’m betting that the punk vibe of the ’80s may influence Cruella De Vil’s iconic hairstyle.

Stone could make a compelling De Vil if she punches up the snobbish and selfish behavior that the character is known for, but who’s to say that that’s where Cruella De Vil got her start. She could have been a humble and sweet girl that changed due to a string of unfortunate events.

The Disney nerd in me cannot wait to see how Stone will bring the cruelest fashionista to walk the earth to the big screen but I’m pretty sure that no matter how her story comes to be — it will come with great style.