As every musical theater fan knows, Annie is set during the Depression and focuses on a red-headed orphan who softens the heart of a hard-boiled billionaire, Daddy Warbucks. The mean-spirited spinster who runs the orphanage, Miss Hannigan, conspires with her ne’er-do-well brother against the little girl, but the nasty siblings are foiled in the end.
Alas, in director Will Gluck‘s new film adaptation (out Friday) of the 1976 musical, a lot has changed. For starters, the movie is set in the present, and both Annie and her wealthy savior — now a cellphone tycoon and mayoral candidate named Will Stacks — are both played by African-American actors: 11-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis and the somewhat older Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx.
“Annie was always an empowering character for kids,” says Cannavale. “I think it’s important that kids of different races can look at this movie now and see themselves.”
