Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are getting their young four-year old daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt into the acting business with a small role in Disney’s Maleficent.
In what is likely a case of convenience rather than a casting call, Vivienne will take on the role of young Princess Aurora in a very limited number of scenes. Jolie likely has Vivienne close by during filming so it made sense for her to lobby for the part to director Robert Stromberg rather than go the casting call route.
The older Princess Aurora part is being played by Elle Fanning of Super 8 fame. Jolie plays the sorceress Maleficent who curses Princess Aurora into a deep sleep which can only be broken by a prince’s kiss, hence she becomes Sleeping Beauty. The film will be told from Maleficent’s point of view rather than the traditional Sleeping Beauty princess route.
Though Maleficent has been in production for well over a month, Disney will not release the 3D film theatrically until March 14, 2014. It could be another nine months to a year before the first Maleficent teaser trailer is released.
Angelina Jolie’s turn as Maleficent is already drawing an unusually high amount of publicity to the project. Throw in the – albeit brief – casting debut of her and Brad Pitt’s daughter Vivienne and you have the perfect storm of free celebrity-powered publicity.
Here’s the first image of Angelina Jolie as Maleficent in case you missed it.
