After the mammoth success of Alice In Wonderland, Disney began scouting around for other properties in its back catalogue to be given a makeover. With the Sleeping Beauty-based Maleficent already in motion, the company also put together a new take on Cinderella and scored Mark Romanek to direct. Now Cate Blanchett is apparently in negotiations to play the title character’s wicked stepmother.

Aline Brosh McKenna wrote the original draft of the script based on her pitch back in 2010. Since then, Chris Weitz has taken over the gig, which is still known as Untitled Cinderella Story.

What exactly will be re-imagined about the tale remains to be seen, but if Blanchett does end up the evil stepmum, it signifies that the major beats of the story will probably be the same. And the potential combination of Romanek and Blanchett certainly sounds promising. We're trying to figure out a way they could re-imagine the story with the Evil Stepmother as the heroine, in the same way that they're recasting Maleficent as one more sinned against than sinning, but that seems like a stretch. Maybe they'll pull an Ever After and throw in Leonardo Da Vinci to spice things up. Probably not, though.

Blanchett has been busy of late, what with reprising the role of Galadriel for the Hobbit trilogy, working with Woody Allen, shooting two Terrence Malick movies and directing a short film as part of collective project The Turning. She’s also signed on to co-star in George Clooney’s next film, The Monuments Men.