Dan Trachtenberg is trading plasma casters for spindle wheels, going from Predator to princesses for his latest project. The news recently broke that he has an original Sleeping Beauty film in active development at Disney, and the mouse-eared studio wants Trachtenberg at the helm to direct an ambitious, ground-up reimagining of the iconic fairytale.
While specific plot details for Trachtenberg’s Sleeping Beauty remain locked tight inside the Disney vault, sources close to the project confirm it has zero connection to the live-action Maleficent films starring Angelina Jolie. Instead of villain origin spins, this project aims for a wholly original direction. Alex Anfanger (Big Time in Hollywood, FL) and Dan Schimpf (Cake) are penning the screenplay based on a story pitch by Trachtenberg and co-written with Raya McClendon.
Disney’s complete trust in Trachtenberg makes total sense. He reinvigorated one of the 20th Century’s most storied sci-fi action properties with 2022’s monumental hit Prey. That survivalist masterpiece starred Amber Midthunder as Naru, a fiercely capable Comanche warrior taking on a high-tech Yautja in the 1700s. Since then, Trachtenberg has become a cornerstone of the franchise, co-directing Hulu’s animated feature Predator: Killer of Killers and heading up Predator: Badlands, which follows a young Yautja outcast (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) forging an unexpected partnership with a human companion (Elle Fanning).
Taking on Sleeping Beauty means grappling with one of Disney’s most visually celebrated animated features. As the final fairy tale adapted under Walt Disney’s personal supervision, the 1959 original tells the tale of Princess Aurora, cursed into a deep slumber by Maleficent after her family snubs the wicked fairy. While classic lore dictates that true love’s kiss breaks the spell, it’s safe to assume Trachtenberg won’t be delivering a passive wait-for-a-prince dynamic.
The original animated film owes its breathtaking aesthetic to legendary artist Eyvind Earle. His mid-century modern sensibility, fused with European Medieval illuminated manuscripts and Renaissance art, endowed the feature with a geometric, rich visual design that remains unmatched in hand-drawn animation. Bringing a filmmaker with Trachtenberg’s sharp spatial geography and visual flair into that sandbox could yield something truly remarkable.