Originally appeared on E! Online
Sabrina Carpenter will be giving fans a taste of her take on “Alice in Wonderland.”
The 26-year-old will star in a new Universal Pictures movie musical inspired by Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel, the studio confirmed to E! News Tuesday.
And beyond her role in front of the camera, Carpenter will also take on a producer role in the film alongside Marc Platt, whose work as a producer includes “Wicked” and the forthcoming “Wicked: For Good.”
As for who is taking lead behind the scenes, “Hustlers” and “Succession” director Lorene Scafaria is set to write and helm the project, which will arrive over 70 years after the Disney animated classic and over 15 years after the live action movie starring Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska.
Plot details are being kept under wraps, according to Universal.
E! News has reached out to reps for Carpenter, Platt and Scafaria for comment but has not heard back.
While Carpenter first entered the scene as an actress on Disney Channel’s “Girl Meets World,” the “Manchild” singer has focused more on her music in recent years. However, for the Grammy winner — who also briefly starred in Broadway’s “Mean Girls” before the show’s COVID-19 shutdown — getting back to acting was always a goal.
Please, please, please don’t assume you know who Sabrina Carpenter’s new song is about. After fans speculated “Manchild” was inspired by a specific ex, the Grammy winner clarified what her new summer anthem was actually about in a candid post on Instagram on June 5.
“I hope I get to do more,” she told Glamour UK in 2023, “and there are definitely plans to do so.”
The role is coming at just the right time for Carpenter, as she released her “Man’s Best Friend” album — which earned six Grammy nominations — in August. And for her, timing is everything.
“If I’m being pulled in one direction, I’m being pulled that way for a reason,” she continued telling the outlet, “whether it’s the time in my life when it’s really important to tell my story or tell someone else’s.”
Carpenter shared that in recent years, “the projects I’ve done over the years are projects I felt connected to,” and that trend will continue with the upcoming film, especially as she told Interview Magazine in 2021 that “Alice in Wonderland” was her favorite movie and that she was a “huge fan.”
So, after over a decade in Hollywood, she really can’t relate to desperation, and she’s only taking on what’s meaningful to her. As she’s said herself, she knows she has good judgement and she knows she has good taste.
“For a long time, I was constantly guided and misguided,” she told Time in 2024. “I’m so grateful for all of those times where I was led astray, because now I’m a lot more equipped going into situations where I have to trust my own instincts.”
(E!, NBC and Universal Pictures are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)
The 2025 MTV Video Music Awards red carpet was full of eye-catching looks! From Ariana Grande’s stunning polka dot gown to Doja Cat’s retro outfit and Sabrina Carpenter’s form hugging red lace dress, see the top looks of the night.
