EXCLUSIVE: I, Tonya‘s Craig Gillespie is in talks at Disney to direct the live-action Cruella, with Emma Stone playing the woman who covets the furs of the 101 Dalmation pups needed to give her the perfect coat, sources said.

Shutterstock

Alex Timbers, the acclaimed Broadway director-writer and co-creator of Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, was going to direct the film, but the latest development is all about timing, I’m told. Basically, Disney has decided it needs the movie to start production sooner than it expected to. Which means, start pre-production immediately and begin shooting next year.

Timber is bringing Beetlejuice to Broadway and then he moves on to working with Baz Luhrmann on the stage version of Moulin Rouge, an all-consuming task that will keep him busy until it opens next July. That scratches him from the live-action film based on the Disney animated children’s classic 101 Dalmatians.