MIAMI: Oscar-nominated child star Quvenzhane Wallis brings her trademark zest to a new big-screen version of the classic Broadway musical "Annie," retold for the social media era.
The film -- incidentally among the Sony productions leaked online by hackers -- tells the story of the young heroine who, while striving to find her real parents to save her from her cruel carer Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz), wins the heart of cellphone tycoon Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx).
The remake, directed by Will Gluck and set in present-day New York rather than the Great Depression of the 1930s, is due out this week in the United States and 10 other territories, and much of the rest of the world next week.
The characters and upbeat message are the same as in the musical, which was first made into a movie in 1982. But 11-year-old African-American Wallis and the rest of the cast bring a new perspective to the story.
"The characters, certainly the story, and the message is still the same, the optimism is still the same," Diaz told AFP.
"The cast is so diverse, that allows more children in the world to relate to it, to see themselves reflected back from the screen," she added.
"I think we got to play totally new characters in a world that kids can relate to and they understand... there is social media they can relate to," she said.
Diaz sang for the first time in a movie -- an experience about which she was apprehensive. But in the end, she said: "I loved that I got the opportunity to take on something that was really a very scary thing for me."
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