If eating an entire chocolate cake by yourself and being thrown over a fence by Emma Thompson sounds like a fun way to spend an evening, it sounds like Netflix has the perfect Matilda adaptation for you. According to Variety, the Cruella actress is strapping on her weightlifting belt to play the despotic principal of Crunchem Hall Elementary School, across from Darklands’ Alisha Weir as Matilda herself, in the streamer’s movie adaptation of the multi-Tony and Olivier-winning Broadway show.
They’re joined in the film, directed by Matthew Warchus, by No Time to Die and Captain Marvel actress Lashana Lynch, who will reportedly portray the story’s benevolent Miss Honey. Dennis Kelly is adapting the film’s screenplay from the Matilda stage show, which premiered on the West End in 2011 and Broadway in 2013, which is itself adapted from the 1988 children’s novel of the same name by Roald Dahl.