Disney’s live-action take on the 101 Dalmatians villain Cruella de Vil has a director in sights.

It’s being reported that Craig Gillespie, director of the Academy Award winning I, Tonya and the 2011 Fright Night remake, has entered into negotiations to direct Cruella. The spinoff, which is similar to Disney’s villain-centric Sleeping Beauty spinoff Maleficent, is set to star Oscar winner Emma Stone in the title role.

Gillespie is replacing Alex Timbers as the movie’s director. Timbers is a Broadway director and the co-creator of the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle, who is currently working on bringing Beetlejuice to the stage and will then get to work on creating a stage version of Moulin Rouge with Baz Luhrmann.

But according to the report, Disney wants the movie to happen a lot sooner than that. So Timbers is now out, Gillespie is in talks to take over, and the plan is to go into pre-production immediately so they can get the project into production next year.

The screenplay for Cruella was penned by Jez Butterworth, whose previous credits include Edge of Tomorrow, Black Mass, and Spectre.

Other titles Gillespie has directed include Mr. Woodcock, Lars and the Real Girl, episodes of United States of Tara, Million Dollar Arm, and The Finest Hours.

Producing Cruella is Marc Platt, Andrew Gunn, and Kristin Burr.

No release date has been set for the movie yet.

[Source: Deadline]

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