‘You’re headed for the chokey, young lady!’
Joining the rich British tradition of cross-dressing comedy, the great Ralph Fiennes will be playing the evil Miss Trunchbull in Netflix’s new adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic Matilda, per Deadline . This will reportedly be an adaptation of the stage musical version of the novel (on stage, the role has traditionally been played by a man), and will also utilize the original production’s director, Matthew Warchus, and its Tony-winning writer, Dennis Kelly. Presumably, this will differentiate it from the much-beloved Danny DeVito adaptation from the 90s, which was still quite popular, last I checked. Who even knows anymore?
It’s part of the Netflix/Dahl agreement to produce adaptations, including the announced Taika Waititi Charlie and the Chocolate Factory projects (yes, plural). Fiennes is pretty much one of the finest living actors, especially adept at both comedy and playing villains, and so while this isn’t exactly the first thing I’d ask to see him doing, he’ll probably knock it out of the park, and it’s a good step towards making this something special. Interestingly, Sony will be releasing the film theatrically in the UK, but with no shoot dates announced yet, all that distribution stuff will likely become clear later rather than sooner.
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