Emma Stone’s ‘Cruella’ Adds Kirby Howell-Baptiste to Cast

Sep 24, 2019

‘Cruella,’ another one of Disney’s live-action reimaginings, now has Kirby Howell-Baptiste onboard the cast, in an unknown role.

Howell-Baptiste was recently in the CBS All Access series ‘Why Women Kill’ and Hulu’s ‘Into the Dark.’ She was also in BBC’s ‘Killing Eve,’ NBC’s ‘The Good Place,’ and Hulu’s ‘Veronica Mars’ revival. She will likely return for the third season of HBO’s ‘Barry,’ premiering in 2020.

Meanwhile, the film is a different take on the ‘101 Dalmations’ franchise, and will star Emma Stone (‘La La Land,’ ‘Manica’) as the titular character.

Emma Thompson (‘Saving Mr. Banks,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast’) will play the film’s antagonist. She will portray the Baroness, who is pivotal to Cruella’s rise as the classic Disney villain.

As for the roles of Cruella’s henchmen, Joel Fry (‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Yesterday’) will play Jasper, while Paul Walter Hauser (‘BlacKkKlansman,’ ‘Cobra Kai’) will portray Horace. Emily Beecham (‘Hail, Caesar!,’ ‘Into the Badlands’) also has a role that is being kept under wraps.

Additionally, Dev Patel (‘The Newsroom,’ ‘Lion’) is circling the role of Roger. He is the owner of Pongo, the dog that helps Roger meet and fall in love with his wife Anita.

Moreover, the logline is below:

“Estella (Stone), before she becomes Cruella De Vil, lives on the streets of 1980’s London with other hoodlums, where we learn the real origins behind Estella’s hatred of Dalmatians.”

Craig Gillespie (‘Lars and the Real Girl,’ ‘I, Tonya’) serves as director. Tony McNamara (‘Ashby,’ ‘The Favourite’) wrote the recent draft of the screenplay. The previous draft was from Dana Fox (‘How to be Single,’ ‘Isn’t It Romantic’).

The crew comprises of costume designer Jenny Beavan (‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’ ‘Christopher Robin’), cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis (‘Triple 9,’ ‘I, Tonya’), editor Tatiana S. Riegel (‘The Finest Hours,’ ‘The Girl in the Spider’s Web’), production designer Fiona Crombie (‘Macbeth,’ ‘The Favourite’), and supervising art director Martin Foley (‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,’ ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’).

Further, filming is currently underway in London, England.

‘Cruella’ will release on May 28, 2021.

Source: Variety