BY: Amanda Jane Stern

When the anticipated trailer for Disney’s Cruella dropped on YouTube last week, attention was centered on how Emma Stone would take on the classic villain. Taking on the fur-forward fashionista didn’t seem an immediately obvious choice for the Academy Award winner. 

Stone’s career trajectory begins with an apocryphal story of a Powerpoint presentation to convince her parents to move to California. After supporting turns in the successful comedies Superbad and Zombieland, Stone landed her first leading role (and a Golden Globe nod) for Easy A. 

She netted her first Oscar nod for Birdman, and followed up two years later with a win for Best Actress in La La Land. And Stone scored an Oscar nomination two years later in the Best Supporting Actress Category as the conniving Abigail opposite Oliva Coleman’s Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite.

Here’s a look at her upcoming film and television projects:

Cruella 

An origin story for the classic villainess from 101 Dalmatians. Cruella de Vil was last portrayed on film by Glenn Close. Both Stone and Close are Executive Producers on this film.

Stone’s co-stars include Emma Thompson (as a Baroness) and Mark Strong.

Filming wrapped on this back in November 2019, and it was originally intended for a theatrical release at Christmas last year. You can “spot” this prequel dropping on Disney+ on May 28th, 2021.

*If the Joker is going to be the new Hamlet, can we let Cruella be the new Hedda Gabler?

 

The Curse

This TV-series is currently in pre-production for Showtime. The half-hour scripted comedy series is created by and co-stars Nathan Fielder (Comedy Central’s Nathan for You) and Benny Safdie (with his brother Josh, one-half of the Safdie brothers’ directing duo behind Uncut Gems and Good Time).

The story centers on a newly married couple who co-star on the fictional HGTV home renovation show “Flipanthropy.” And the show within a show becomes problematic as the hosts try to start a family. 

According to Deadline, while the series is not inherently based on any one particular reality show personality, the series throughline does seem to have some mirrors to Flip or Flop’s Tarek El Moussa and Christina Anstead.

Stone’s last premium TV series was in Cary Joji Fukunaga’s (True Detective) Natflix show Maniac, alongside co-star Jonah Hill.