CinemaCon for spring? Groundbreaking.
Disney rolled out the red carpet for The Devil Wears Prada 2 during its Las Vegas presentation on Thursday, with Anne Hathaway appearing virtually to hype up the new project and reflect on its two-decade staying power.
She then introduced some new footage, which showed Meryl Streep‘s Miranda Priestly leading an editorial meeting at Runway and back in her familiar place of criticizing pitches from her staff. “May my suicide be brief and painless,” she whines at one point, while new addition Simone Ashley sits by her side and tries to keep her on a more politically correct path.
A montage of other clips followed, showcasing top fashion moments and Hathaway and Emily Blunt’s characters on a boat, seemingly cruising through Italy.
The original 2006 film has become a cultural classic over the last 20 years, and original stars Streep, Hathaway, Blunt and Stanley Tucci are all back for the sequel as it hits theaters on May 1. Kenneth Branagh, Justin Theroux, Lucy Liu, Patrick Brammall, Caleb Hearon, Pauline Chalamet, B.J. Novak and Conrad Ricamora also join in on the action.
The follow-up sees Miranda Priestly (Streep) in a struggles against Emily (Blunt), her former assistant turned rival executive, as they compete for advertising revenue amid declining print media, as Miranda also nears retirement. Hathway’s Andy Sachs is also back in business with Miranda, working as an editor at Runway.
Devil Wears Prada director David Frankel returns to helm the sequel, written by Aline Brosh McKenna, who penned the screenplay for the first film, based on Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel of the same name.
Along with plenty of fanfare online, the sequel’s shooting also drew crowds of onlookers, as well as numerous photos and videos littering social media, as the team filmed in New York this past summer.
“All of this attention and obsession with the quick consumption of this movie before it’s even out … in many ways is emblematic of how our industry and our lives have changed,” Blunt told Vogue. “We began wearing our sweatpants to set and only changing out of them at the last minute to try to preserve the magic.”
Streep noted, “It felt jubilant, when I first got out on Sixth Avenue—where we filmed 20 years ago and nobody was interested. I got changed, got out of my camper, and just heard this roar! When we shot the wannabe Met Ball, it was even crazier. People were dressed up as Miranda! Honestly, it really threw me.”
