Maleficent Sequel Gets a Composer

Disney is going in hard with its live-action adaptations this year. Dumbo hit theaters earlier this year, Aladdin will debut on Friday, and The Lion King will roar onto screens in July. Joining them will be Maleficent: Mistress of Evil this October and as the Angelina Jolie-starring film readies for release, the film has now added a composer to bring the soundscape to life.

Composer Geoff Zanelli has signed on to score for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The move sees Zanelli teaming up with director Joachim Ronning again, as the pair previously worked together on Disney's 2017 film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

"I couldn't wait to team up with Disney and Joachim Rønning again, so I'm excited to be invited to the Moors for an inspired new adventure," Zanelli said in a statement. "The storytelling in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is fantastic, and Angelina Jolie's iconic performance as this timeless villain is hauntingly vivid, easily one of my favorite recent cinematic experiences. For someone who was raised on fantasy and adventure films, writing this score is a dream come true."

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, the sequel to 2014' Maleficent, sees the return of Jolie as the titular character, and Elle Fanning will reprise her role as Princess Aurora. Also returning are original cast members Juno Temple, Sam Riley, and Imelda Staunton. However, this film will also see plenty of new faces joining the franchise, including Ed Skrein, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The sequel will feature a new sort of tale involving Maleficent and Aurora, with the story expected to head into magical territory.

"Aurora and Maleficent love each other so much," Fanning said during the film's CinemaCon presentation earlier this year. "But there is a divide between them. Maleficent is still a little wary of the humans, and Aurora is dealing with the burden of coming into this new life to be this cookie-cutter royal, which is not what Aurora is."

Maleficent, which was released in 2014, was one of the first movies in this enormous wave of live-action Disney adaptations. The film earned a total of $241 million at the domestic box office, on its way to a worldwide total of $758 million. Maleficent helped usher in the modern era of Disney live-action re-imaginings: the first film followed Tim Burton's $1 billion-plus-grosser Alice in Wonderland and the sequel comes on the heels of Cinderella ($543m), The Jungle Book ($966m), and the Emma Watson-led Beauty and the Beast ($1.26b).

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil hits theaters on October 18th.

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