News of re-shoots on big films is commonplace these days: some productions specifically schedule time to sort issues discovered in the edit, others have to go back and scrape together the resources. So while it’s not surprising to learn that Disney is putting Maleficent back into the studio for some extra work,the fact that **The Blind Side'**s John Lee Hancock has been called in to write new material and oversee the re-shoots is a little more surprising.
The fantasy, which offers a re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty story from the viewpoint of the “bad” fairy who puts the curse on the heroine, shot in London last year with Angelina Jolie in the title role and Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Miranda Richardson, Sharlto Copley and more amongst the cast.
Still, producer Joe Roth has been quick to put out any panic fires, reassuring the Hollywood Reporter that original director, former production designer-turned-first-time-megaphone-man Robert Stromberg, will still be calling the shots.
"We asked him to be on set," Roth says of Hancock, who has Disney’s **Saving Mr. Banks **set for release this Christmas. "He's not directing. He wrote pages and I hired a first-time director and it's good to have him on set. The movie is gorgeous to look at and the last 75 minutes are really entertaining.” At issue, apparently, is the opening, which will be worked on across eight days of additional shooting. Jolie won’t be involved, but Stromberg has gathered some of the cast back to get started on the new scenes.
Maleficent is currently still slated to hit screens on May 30 next year.