A sequel to “The Devil Wears Prada” is one step closer to the big screen, and it’s coming at a decisive time in the fashion industry that inspired it.
20th Century Studiosannounced on Monday via social mediathat the sequel to the beloved 2006 film is currently in production, and it dovetails with the news that Anna Wintour – who is famously believed to have been the inspiration for the titular diabolical editor in the film, played by Meryl Streep –is stepping down from her position editor-in-chief at Vogue after almost four decades.
The first film was based on the 2003 bestselling novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger, who had previously worked as a personal assistant to Wintour at Vogue, and tells the story of an impressionable young New Yorker (Anne Hathaway) who finds a job at a top fashion magazine under the direction of a tough-as-nails editor.
Streep’s character Miranda Priestly became shorthand for difficult-to-please bosses no matter the industry, and she earned one of her many Oscar nominations for her performance.
The new film will welcome back Streep, along with Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt, whose career was launched by the hit first movie.
CNN has also confirmed that Kenneth Branagh has joined the cast for the next installment, currently known as “The Devil Wears Prada 2” on IMDb.
For her part, Wintour was at one point…less than enthusiastic about being linked to the Priestly character.
In 2009,she appeared on David Letterman’s late night talk showwhere she noted that the film was “fiction” and pointed out that “as my publisher says in the movie, I’m not always warm and cuddly.”
“What I liked about the movie is that it really showed all the hard work that goes into the making of the magazine,” she allowed at the time.
The sequel is being directed by David Frankel, who also helmed the original. A release date for “Devil Wears Prada 2” has not yet been released.