Mark Romanek To Direct Re-Imagined, Live-Action ‘Cinderella’

We love Mark Romanek but dude, seriously, WTF. Granted, it was inevitable that after “Never Let Me Go” failed at the box office and dropped out of last year’s awards race very early, the director would have to take on a studio gig to bring some sheen back to his name. In fact, earlier this year he had the chance to direct “The Wolverine” — an exciting prospect to be sure — but he turned it down. And given this development, we really wish he would’ve done the comic franchise instead.

Last year, Aline Brosh McKenna — the overrated but in demand writer of “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Morning Glory,” and “27 Dresses” — made a cool seven figures selling Disney on a live-action, reimagining of “Cinderella.” This was just on the heels of Tim Burton‘s wretched “Alice In Wonderland” becoming a billion dollar earner and now, according to Deadline, they want Mark Romanek to repeat that lucrative magic.

So, what happens in this new tale? Well, “the prince is set for a politically arranged marriage, until the evil plan is threatened when the prince meets Cinderella” and then presumably pumpkins turn into carriages or whatever. We’d really rather Romanek be doing anything but this but interest in the director seems low right now — did anyone even go see his canceled “Locke & Key” pilot when it screened at Comic-Con last month? — so we figure this will his name back in circulation. Sometimes you gotta bite the bullet or take one for the team, and if doing this means Romanek can get “Cold Case” off the ground in the future, we suppose we’ll have to live with it.