I never wanted to see Annie remade. It’s not because I love the original film so much I feel it could never be topped, or that I have some passion for the Broadway version, but I was just not sure the story and music would work with audiences today. Then Jay Z said he was interested in helping out, and suddenly I thought, “why not?” In the moment I may have become everything we claim to hate here at UTG about the millennial crowd, but after viewing the first trailer for Will Gluck’s upcoming adaptation I am more convinced than ever that Annie can work in 2014.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild star Quvenzhané Wallis is the new Annie, and she fills the role extremely well. For most movie-goers she is still an unknown, and Annie offers her the perfect launching pad to a very long and successful career in Hollywood. Jamie Foxx plays kindly billionaire Benjamin Stacks, and the connection we see between him and Wallis in the trailer looks very convincing. You can view the teaser below.

The official synopsis for the update of Annie reads:

A Broadway classic that has delighted audiences for generations comes to the big screen with a new, contemporary vision in Columbia Pictures’ comedy, Annie. Director/Producer/Screenwriter Will Gluck teams with producers James Lassiter, Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith, and Shawn “JAY Z” Carter, Laurence “Jay” Brown, and Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith with a modern telling that captures the magic of the classic characters and original show that won seven Tony Awards. Celia Costas serves as Executive Producer. The screenplay is by Will Gluck and Aline Brosh McKenna, based on the musical stage play “Annie,” book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and on “Little Orphan Annie,” © and ® Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Academy Award® nominee Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) stars as Annie, a young, happy foster kid who’s also tough enough to make her way on the streets of New York in 2014. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they’d be back for her someday, it’s been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). But everything’s about to change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) – advised by his brilliant VP, Grace (Rose Byrne) and his shrewd and scheming campaign advisor, Guy (Bobby Cannavale) – makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. Stacks believes he’s her guardian angel, but Annie’s self-assured nature and bright, sun-will-come-out-tomorrow outlook on life just might mean it’s the other way around.

Annie opens nationwide December 19.

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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