Hollywood loves to tell the same fairy tales over and over again, and why not? We take to them like vultures to carrion, probably because these stories—Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, for example—are the how most of us are introduced to storytelling. Sleeping Beauty’s been the most notable reinvention to date, and now there’s another one coming. Next year,
XLrator Media will be releasing another new take on an old tale in 2016: The Curse of Sleeping Beauty, a story that features the classic characters from the Brothers Grimm tale.
The Curse of Sleeping Beauty stars Ethan Peck (Eden), who, strangely enough, is the grandson of Gregory Peck; India Eisley (Underworld: Awakening, The Secret Life of the American Teenager); Natalie Hall (True Blood); and Academy Award®-nominee Bruce Davison (X-Men). The film was produced by Ehud Bleiberg (The Iceman) and Pearry Teo (Cloud Atlas). Teo will be directing from the screenplay he wrote with Josh Nadler.
What’s unique about The Curse of Sleeping Beauty is that this one is contemporary, which adds a new and interesting dynamic to the Grimm tale. In fact, the story deviates from the tradition version quite a bit:
Thomas Kaiser (Peck) inherits an ancestral mansion that has been in his family for generations — only to learn that he has also inherited an ancient curse stemming back to the Crusades. Forced into his new role as “protector” — the guardian appointed to keep the evil demons in the house at bay — Thomas teams with an ambitious local realtor (Hall) and paranormal cleric (Davison) to unravel the mystery of the house, while struggling to awaken the beautiful Briar Rose (Eisley), held captive in a terrifying netherworld seen previously in his dreams.
For those of us who enjoy seeing the characters who starred in the first stories we were exposed to in new settings, The Curse of Sleeping Beauty shouldn’t be missed.