Acclaimed director Sir Kenneth Branagh has confessed his retelling of 'Cinderella' needed to be relevant to a modern audience.
Sir Kenneth Branagh was determined his retelling of 'Cinderella' was relevant to a modern audience.
The 54-year-old director confessed his live-action version of the classic fairytale - which stars Lily James and Richard Madden - needed to be markedly different from the original animated version.
He told The Guardian newspaper: ''I did want to make a film that was about courage and about kindness and about a psychological modernity in the middle of this traditional story.
''The Cinderella myth continues to capture our imaginations.''
Sir Kenneth explained that although he's more used to directing plays written by William Shakespeare, he sees similarities between those stories and 'Cinderella' .
He shared: ''We have the line Cinderella is told by her mother: 'Have courage and be kind'; some people thought it seemed trite, but I was reminding them of King Lear when Edgar says 'Have patience and endure' at the point he's being put in the stocks and mocked.
''Patience to me equates to compassion, and endurance is a form of courage - it reminded me that these basic, human and fundamental situations get seized on by great storytellers and there are obvious resonances between all these stories.''
Richard Madden, meanwhile, said it was important that the new film saw Cinderella and the Prince meeting on a more level playing field.
He remarked: ''The original animated version was much more about this boy who comes to save the day and this version is so not like that.
''It's the strong girl by herself and a young man coming together that makes the story, rather than a far more sexist view.''
Yes, I know, it's far too early to call out contenders for the Top Ten Albums of 2021 but, if 'In Quiet Moments' by Lost Horizons doesn't feature...
Tom Odell returns with new song, 'numb', his first single in nearly two years.
Way, way back in the February of 1980 one twenty year old Bryan Adams released his eponymous debut album, paving the way for the start of his...
As the second month of 2021 gets ever nearer we take a look at the new releases that are set to delight our ears over the coming weeks.
"With great regret, we must announce that this year's Glastonbury Festival will not take place," came the not altogether unexpected announcement from...
The latest adaptation of Agatha Christie's 83-year-old classic whodunit, this lavish, star-studded film is old-style...
Britain's epic 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk has been dramatised on film before, but no one...
It's 1940 and World War II is in full swing. Allied soldiers from Britain, Belgium,...
It's the 1930s and a group of strangers from different walks of life board a...
In one of the biggest military disasters in British history, 400,000 soldiers found themselves stranded...
In the late 80s, Richard Thorncroft (Julian Barratt) was the most famous police detective on...
The story of Romeo and Juliet is one of unconditional love that shows how far...
Cinderella is an uncommonly kind young woman, overcome with the loss of her dear father....
Following her mother's death, Cinderella was faced with a lonely existence while her beloved father...
Everyone is familiar with the classic fairy tale of Cinderella. Cinderella lives a mundane life...
There's nothing very original in this spy thriller, but director Branagh gives the film a...
Jack Ryan is a young office worker at CIA headquarters whose life turns upside down...