Cinderella's Sizzling Dress (Live Action Film Update, With Bonus Ashes)

Fan made Cinderella 2014 poster by Zhivko Petrov (myrmorko)

Not long before Christmas, while shooting at Pinewood Studios, the extravagant wedding gown Lily James was wearing, caught fire (she - and no one else- was hurt).

Here's what happened, told best, and with gentle humor, by the DailyMail (extract):

The 24-year-old had been shooting a scene at Pinewood studios. The bridal dress — with its voluminous skirts, three miles of hemming and covered in Swarovski crystals — is a work of art in its own right. It covers so much square footage the actress can’t always see what’s in front of her. 

She was led into her dressing room (a large tent in a corner of the vast 007 sound stage) and her hem brushed against a heater and began smouldering.‘It had turned really cold and someone had put a three-bar heater a bit too close to where Lily was going to sit on a stool,’ explained distinguished costume designer Sandy Powell. 

Lily James channeling Bridget Bardot for Tatler UK Magazine

‘Luckily, just a segment of the silk dress got burnt. Thank God Lily wasn’t harmed,’ added Powell  who has collected three Oscars and two Baftas for her screen creations. 

‘I wore this wedding dress for about 20 seconds before I walked past the heater and burned some of it.’

She said she was in tears at first — until Ben Chaplin, who plays Cinderella’s father, lightened the mood by saying: ‘Well, I’ll wait a while before I make the Cinders joke.’  

Lily said: ‘I went: “Oh, no!” And I was laughing through my tears. 

...incendiary dresses aside, Lily said she’s been having ‘a ball’...

Once the emergency is over, you have to admit, it's a perfect behind-the-scenes story for a Cinderella. (Cinders! lol)

Producers for the film confirmed at the time of the incident, that the movie wouldn't be ready/released until Easter 2015. Considering the buzz around Maleficent and Frozen right now, and with Into the Woods heading for the 2014 Christmas release slot, it's probably a good thing.

Other Theatrical Snow Queen Productions (Pt 5): Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theater

And now for something completely different: an adrenalin-pumped acrobatic & flying Snow Queen spectacular, by Irish company Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theater (don't you love that name?)

While the aesthetic seems harsh initially, I have a feeling it would work really well live. Doesn't it seem as if Cirque Du Soleil went to the Winter Olympics to play out their latest fairy tale there? Such a unique take - and it works, fairy tale magic intact and everything. This would be a perfect year to see this production, though unfortunately I can't see any indication that it's been performed since 2011.

                           

Wow - does that look like a giant shoe to you too? Was that intentional??

Fidget Feet's most recent production (Dec 2013) was The Elves & the Shoemaker, which I will have to look up again when photos become available, but they also did an aerial take on Red Riding Hood call Catch Me.

Looks like a company to keep an eye on, especially with regard to unique interpretations of fairy tales.

(Stay tuned for one last theatrical production in this recent retelling roundup.)

New Maleficent Sneak Peek Trailer (With Lots of Maleficent & a Comparison with the Original Animated Classic)

It's a gutsy move - intercutting the new Maleficent movie scenes with the corresponding original Disney animated ones, but it works. And it should draw in nostalgic parents and Disney die-hards as well as new fans. (Heck, even the live action fairies don't annoy me half as much as the animated ones do!)

Take a look:

Angelina Jolie seems pretty much perfect in the title role, from all we've seen so far. Elle Fanning seems fine but it's really not about her, and honestly, we all want to see more Maleficent anyway, right?

I find it intriguing that we have this giant "remember she's a fairy!" visual indication in the very pointed ears, which are then very specifically covered up by the Mistress of All Evil cap, which also covers her (grown/growing?) horns, subconsciously transitioning us to think of her as less fairy, more demon.

It's a little difficult to tell how the script is going to sit, as all the lines we have heard are out of context (and many out of order), but I remain impressed with the movie overall at this point.

Plus: screencap and gifs opportunities galore!
Here are some I just pulled:

Whomever is directing the marketing for this really understands our society's current hunger for gif-able scenes (new word) and meme-potentialed images (more new words). And it's working. Looks like someone noted the enthusiasm of the OUAT fan images - and how well they help market a show (even when it's often below par) - and how the fans enthusiasm and stories help the movie/product take on a life of it's own - beyond the screen. (Free and fast marketing - make it viral and you have a hit!) Smart, smart, smart.

Fairy tale people should be looking at this and taking note!

In the meantime, expect a zillion Maleficent gifs on Tumblr tomorrow. Oh - and don't forget this iconic scene:

Although I have some reservations, overall I think I'm just going to enjoy this film (possibly a lot!), not to mention my excitement over seeing the "expansion" (in pop culture) of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.

Bring on May 30th! (In the US & UK - some other lucky countries will get to see our favorite fairy tale villain a few days earlier...)

Other Theatrical Snow Queen Productions (Pt 4): Rose Theater (with Su Blackwell's Lovely Sets)

Next up: the production you've probably heard about (especially if you've been a regular reader of the blog for a few years and saw this post HERE): Rose Theater's The Snow Queen production, using designs by the amazing fairy tale paper artist Su Blackwell.

I heard a lot of great things about the design, less so about the production itself unfortunately. I wish I could find some better sources to cite some different views from but here's the best I found:

A brief excerpt from an atypically brief review in The Guardian (who's reviews and articles I generally respect a lot):

There is a great deal to charm here, especially in Su Blackwell's cutout paper designs, which conjure fairytale forests and winking houses. The comedy is good, too, particularly in a scene in which Gerda encounters a Hooray Henry wedding party. But the show is often at its best when it sticks closely to Andersen's original rather than veering off into a story of the changing seasons at war with each other; and although Natascha Metherell's production has its moments of frosty magic, it doesn't quite generate the emotional power that it should.

An excerpt from British Theater Guide:

Here, the story of a young girl, Gerda, and her quest to save her friend Cei from the clutches of the evil Snow Queen, who plans to cloak the world in a perpetual winter, plays out on an attractive set by Su Blackwell, an artist making a first, distinguished foray into theatre design with this production. Each stage of Gerda’s journey through the seasons has a very particular look and tone, the mood enhanced by excellent music composed by Alex Silverman, with fiddle, accordion and guitar giving the production a beguiling folk spirit.
A standout sequence transports Gerda through the ice to arrive at the cottage of the sorceress Mrs D, the first of the transformative encounters on her quest. The most surprising episode moves us into a world of gap-year toffs and teen-speak: it breaks the mood, but features a very funny performance from Sian Robins-Grace as a decidedly modern teen princess.
...Overall, The Snow Queen skirts deep enchantment in this incarnation. But it’s a classy and enjoyable production that offers many delights.

And finally excerpts of additional information about the production, along with review opinion from Exeunt Magazine:

The set alone is a source of wonder. Paper artist, Su Blackwell, in her first design project for the stage has created a delicate, wintry world of trees, cottages and lampposts that appear to have been snipped from the pages of a paperback. Black lettering nests against white, making an apt and charming backdrop for Charles Way’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy story.Young Gerda is a nervy girl, prone to panic attacks and terrified of her bad-tempered schoolmaster father, Mr Overskou. When her classmates take turns to dance in front of one another, she can’t bring herself to join in and her best friend Cei has to calm her down. Though Cei and Gerda have been friends and playmates all their lives, Mr Overskou disapproves of the boy’s dreamy ways and forbids them to see one another; it is then that Cei falls under the Snow Queen’s spell. A shard of mirror pierces his heart and he becomes cold and cruel before being whisked off to the Queen’s winter palace and forced to piece together the shattered fragments of her magic mirror. But though the townspeople believe Cei to have drowned, Gerda refuses to accept this and sets off to find him.
If anything Natascha Metherell’s production is too gentle and sedate....What’s missing, despite all its considerable polish, is any real emotional tug or genuine sense of peril; it’s all a little too neat and tidy and lacks the wild fringes of the best children’s theatre.

I'm not quite sure what to think of this one, apart from the lovely set design (which I insta-love). Did anyone know anyone who actually saw this?

More Snow Queen theatrics coming so stay tuned!

Behind the Disney Brave Shoot

This would be my favorite unofficial photo for composition & lighting

A little bonus because I know there's a whole lot of you (us) who like seeing these things: here are some lovely behind-the-scenes photos that appeared the day after Jessica Chastain's Merida was released into the internet-wilds.

To remind you, here's the official pic (looks like the color is bumped up in this one but it works - that hair is definitely Merida-red now!):

And here are the other behind-the-scenes shots (my favorite is at the head of the post, but you probably read that).

                    

 

                     

Apart from the cars in the background ruining it somewhat, this is my favorite "most natural Merida & Angus".
Jessica most embodies the Merida spirit here & check the horses' ears & eyeline: he likes her!
(So now I like her even more)

Did you notice the horse got a little photoshopping of his own re the markings and the high gloss? I know he had to match Angus but still... seems a crime that such a beautiful animal should need his image altered. But when you see things like this, and also like Jessica rehearsing on the plastic model, her boot stabilizing her position by being on a concrete block, you realize how much more amazing it is when stories - and real life - have these elements in them - without the props and extra touches. (Hollywood's fairy godmothers have to work pretty hard to get their fairy tales just "so"!)

So what does this have to do with anything in fairy tales? Very little - apart from reminding you that Brave and Scottish tales are back in the public mind and eye.

Therefore, you will now be returned to your regularly scheduled programming.