“Matilda”: Emma Thompson and Lashana Lynch in the new Netflix musical

At a time when most film and television productions are waiting to figure out where the pandemic will go before moving on, Netflix looks to the future with optimism and announces very ambitious projects like the film based on one of the most famous Broadway musicals: Matilda. The film, inspired by the book of the same name by Roald Dahl and already transposed to the big screen by Danny De Vito in 1996, will be directed by Matthew Warchus, formerly at the helm of the theatrical version of the musical, and written by Dennis Kelly.

Together with the original music by Tim Michin, the platform moves forward and announces the cast: to interpret Matilda will be little Alisha Weir, 11, already seen in films such as Don’t Leave Home, while the two main roles will be entrusted to two exceptional actresses. These are Emma Thompson, who will lend the face to the fearsome principal of Crunchem Hall Agatha Trinciabue, and Lashana Lynch, the English actress who we will see in the 25th chapter of the James Bond saga, No Time to Die, and that in Matilda – The Musical will play Miss Honey, played in the version of De Vito had the face of Embeth Davidtz.

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The two actresses, in addition to confronting the performers of the original film – it will be interesting to see how she approaches the Thompson part., as Pam Ferris’ performance remains etched in the memories of more than one generation of children -, will also be called upon to keep the expectations of the musical high, which had the particularity of counting on a male actor in the role of Trinciabue (the actor, incidentally, was Ralph Fiennes). According to what he anticipates Deadline, the Netflix movie dedicated to Matilda it will be released first in English theaters and then on the platform, even if the timing of shooting and distribution are now very difficult to guess.

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