MUMBAI: It has been reported that Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is in talks to play the evil stepmother in Disney's live-action Cinderella remake produced by Simon Kinberg. The film will be directed by Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go) with screenplay by Chris Weitz (A Better Life, About a Boy).

The Cinderella project was first set up at Disney in May 2010, in the wake of the studio's success with Alice in Wonderland, the live-action adaptation of the Lewis C. Carroll book that starred Johnny Depp, Ann Hathaway Mia Wasikowska and Helena Botham Carter and was directed by Tim Burton. Devil Wears Prada writer Aline Brosh McKenna wrote the initial draft of the script.

Blanchett was once set to play the evil witch in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but that project failed to take off.

The Australian actress' next appearance will be in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which hits the theatres on 14 December. She also has two Terrence Malick films and a Woody Allen project on the anvil. She has recently joined the star-studded cast of George Clooney's The Monuments Men.