Ralph Fiennes is attached to star as the intimidating and monstrous antagonist Miss Trunchbull in Netflix and Working Title‘s upcoming remake of Matilda. Sony will release the feature theatrically in the UK, although a set release date has not been revealed.
Matilda is based on Roald Dahl’s classic story in which a young bookworm prodigy battles with her insolent parents and nemesis headmistress Trunchbull using her brain power — literally. The original director of Matilda: The Musical, Matthew Warchus (Pride), will help work on the adaptation while Dennis Kelly, who won a Tony for adapting the novel, is writing the screenplay. Shoot date has yet to be set.
This feature film adaptation will be based on the successful Broadway musical, which often casts a man to play the villain. Fiennes is a seasoned actor in theatrical and musical performance (he sang in Prince of Egypt), but he’s not the first to come to mind when imagining Miss Trunchbull. This will be the English actor’s first time in drag in a major feature film, so we can only anticipate what kind of menace and evil quirks he will bring to such an outlandish role.
Matilda has always stayed relevant in American pop culture. The classic Roald Dahl novel was adapted into a beloved 1996 film starring Mara Wilson and Danny DeVito, then a musical that launched in London in 2011 before making a successful journey to Broadway, running from 2013 to 2017 and winning a Tony.
Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer is also reportedly in talks to play Miss Honey, Matilda’s kind schoolteacher, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
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