Saturday 3 March 2012

Raja's Movie Ramblings: More Hollywood Movie Fairy Tales Coming Soon



With director Tim Burton's 2010 adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland starring Johnny Depp  being a big success, Hollywood is now jumping on the bandwagon of adapting classic fairy tales into big Hollywood box office.


Three competing  Snow White movies are already in the works, but with a more adult edge to them.





First one out of the park is Mirror Mirror by Relativity Media, directed by Tarsem Singh, who's known for his sense of art direction style in such movies as The Cell (2000) Immortals (2011) starring  future Superman Henry Cavill as the Greek demigod Theseus.


Starring  Academy Award Winning Actress Julia Roberts (for 2000's Erin Brockovick) as the Evil Queen 


Lilly Collins (from 2011's Priest & Abduction) won the part of Snow White after Singh considered actress Saoirse Ronan (from 2011's Hanna) & Felicity Jones (from director Julie Taymor's 2010's adaptation of Shakespeare's the Tempest).


Actor Armie Hammer (from 2010's Social Network & starring in the upcoming Lone Ranger movie with actor Johnny Depp) beat out actors James McAvoy (2011's X-Men:First Class) & Alex Pettyfer (2011's I Am Number Four) as the Prince.


Arounding out the cast includes actors Nathan Lane (from 2005's The Producers) & Sean Bean (from director Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy & HBO's 2011 TV series Game of Thrones) as the Evil Queen's aid & Snow White's father the King. 




Mirror Mirror originally set for March 16, 2012, it was push back to March 30, 2012.





Universal Pictures has a different plan in mind with their Snow White project. Instead of going for the visual art style of Mirror Mirror, their setting their movie as an action fantasy like the Lord of the Rings trilogy titled Snow White & the Huntsman. 


Producers Joe Roth (Alice in Wonderland) & Sam Mercer (the Sixth Sense) has hired acclaimed commercial director Rupert Sanders for is first Big Hollywood movie, with a screenplay by Evan Daugherty. 


For the starring role of Snow White the producers looked at young actress like Riley Keough, Felicity Jones (again), Bella Heathcote, & Alicia Vikander before looking at the Twilight Saga & Runaways actress Kristen Stewart & Dakato Fanning, with Stewart winning the role.      


For the role of the Evil Queen, not to be out done by their rivals, the Producers cast their own Academy Award Winning Actress, Charlize Theron (for 2003's Monster).


The next part was for the Huntsman. The Producers offered the role to the likes of Johnny Depp, Viggo Mortensen, & Hugh Jackman before casting Thor's Chris Hemsworth in the role.The Huntsman is not the love interest, but plays more of that of a mentor as he teaches Snow White the art of war.


The Prince love interest is played by actor Sam Claflin (2011's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides).  

As for Snow White's dwarven companions, an amazing group of British character actors has been assemble, who have been re-imagined as being named after famous Roman Leaders.


Ian McShane is Ceasar, the eldest & leader. Stephen Graham is Nero, the angry one. Eddie Izzard is Tiberius, the biggest & burliest. Bob Hoskins is the blind Constantine. Toby Jones is the timid Claudius. Ray Winstone & Eddie Masron the twins Trajan & Hadrian.  Nick Frost is the youngest Gus.

What You Say, They Are EIGHT! You're Right! The rumour is that by the end of the Movie one of them is killed, making their number drop to the classic Seven. 


Set to be release June 1, 2011




Walt Disney also plans on their own Snow White remake with the Order of the Seven, a loosely adapted kung fu tale with abit of Seven Samurai thrown in.


Set to star Hanna's Saoirse Ronan as a 19th Century British expatriate in Hong Kong who teams up with a group of outlaw warriors who must battle an evil ancient empress. This will be directed by Michael Gracey. 

The casting for the seven warriors has yet to be done. My hope is that the producers cast an "All-Star" group of Hong Kong's Finest, like Jackie Chan, Jet Lei, Sammo Hung, Chow Yun-Fat, & Donnie Yen.   
No release date set at present.   

But Snow White is not the only fairy tale contender. Walt Disney also plans on a live-action remake of Sleeping Beauty titled Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie (2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider). 


Originally director Tim Burton was attached to the project until Walt Disney announced Robert Stromberg, the Production designer on Avatar (2009) & Alice in Wonderland will direct instead. No set dat as of yet.


In the works are adaptations of the classic French fairy tale of Beauty & the Beast by Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro (2004's Hellboy & 2006's Pan's Labyrinth), co-producing with Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) producer Denise DiNovi and screenplay by Andrew Davies (1995 BBC mini-series Pride & Prejudice and 2001's Brittget Jones' Dairy). 


Del Toro's 'Beauty' is Harry Potter's Emma Waston.    
No set date as of yet.


MGM & Paramount team-up to bring us Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 3-D, a action horror comedy by director Tommy Wirkola (director of 2007's Kill Buljo & 2009's Dead Snow) and produced by Will Ferrell. 


Actors Jeremy Renner (2009's the Hurt Locker & the upcoming Avengers as Hawkeye) & Gemma Arterton ( 2008's Quantum of Solace & 2010's Clash of the Titans) as the now adult siblings battling a witch's coven lead by actress Famke Janssen (Jean Grey from the X-Men movies). 
Set for January 11. 2013.



Director Bryan Singer retells the story of Jack & the Beanstalk with Jack the Giant Killer starring Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class) as the peasant hero Jack who must rescue the King's daughter (played by actors Ian McShane & Eleanor Tomlinson) from an evil two-headed giant (played by actors Bill Nighy & John Kassir) with the help of the Captain of the King's Elite Guard (played by actor Ewan McGregor).






Set for June 15, 2012 release.




If these Movies succeed, it seems that Hollywood has found another cash cow other than comic books to stripe mine.

~ Rajadevilman74

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