It’s been somewhat amusing to follow the dueling SNOW WHITE movies as studios Relativity and Universal jockeyed for release dates and hustled to collect the hottest actors, all in an attempt to replicate the billion-dollar fairy tale success of ALICE IN WONDERLAND (and not the tragedy of RED RIDING HOOD).
Screenwriter Jason Keller (MACHINE GUN PREACHER) offers some behind-the-scenes insight on the process to Vulture: “At the end of last year, [Relativity] looked around, and they saw Universal was coming out with a Snow White. But they had a script that wasn’t really working, but they knew they wanted to try to keep that, so when they hired me, the first conversation we all had about that was, ‘How do we beat that other project?’ So it was literally something like, ‘We want to beat that other project. We are very, very motivated to do a Snow White project.'”
Keller also admits that the studio and director Tarsem Singh basically gave the thumbs up just from his pitch, and started working on art, costumes and location scouts before he even wrote a script. He also swears there are significant differences between the two projects: “Ours is not dark. I mean, I know SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN is very intense, and lots of chain mail, and armor, and Kristen Stewart has a sword. Ours is an adventure, ours is funny — it’s a comedic adventure! And there’s some great action in it. It’s stunningly gorgeous, and it’s fun … Ours will be PG or PG-13, and the other one will probably be a R. We don’t know yet. But ours is nothing like theirs.”
Obviously no sensible studio would make an R-rated fairy tale, but for the record here’s the official synopsis for Universal’s SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN: “Kristen Stewart plays the only person in the land fairer than the evil queen (Charlize Theron) who is out to destroy her. But what the wicked ruler never imagined is that the young woman threatening her reign has been training in the art of war with a huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) who was dispatched to kill her. ” This one also has Sam Claflin, Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, Eddy Izzard, Bob Hoskins, Nick Frost, Lily Cole, Eddie Marsan and Toby Jones.
Meanwhile, Relativity’s is described as “”a spectacular reimagining of the classic fairy tale, an evil queen steals control of a kingdom, and an exiled princess enlists the help of seven resourceful rebels to win back her birthright in a spirited adventure comedy filled with jealousy, romance, and betrayal that will capture the imagination of audiences the world over.” They’ve got Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, Julia Roberts, Nathan Lane, Sean Bean and Mare Winningham.