Snow and the Seven

[@PLUGO]

http://screenrant.com writer Sandy Schaefer says:

Seeing how Disney expects to suffer a $200 million loss on John Carter, it’s no wonder the Mouse House has begun tightening its belt – and intends to scrutinize the budget for every film it has in development.

As a result, the company has halted pre-production on Order of the Seven. That project has previously gone by a handful of different names (including, Snow and the Seven and Order of Seven), but remains best known as Disney’s Snow White-inspired martial arts epic.

Most people tend to roll their eyes at the idea of another retelling of Snow White – which is understandable, after Mirror Mirror and next month’s Snow White and the Huntsman. However, Order of the Seven has been in some form of development for more than a decade.
The project was initiated by producer Andrew Gunn (Freaky Friday, Race to Witch Mountain) and was originally meant to be, as Heat Vision puts it, “a live-action kung fu take” on Snow White. That plan changed over the years as the script eventually evolved into a standalone fantasy adventure, after being worked on by such people as Michael Chabon (John Carter), Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine), Hangover co-writing duo Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, Jayson Rothwell (Second in Command), newcomer Michael DeBruyn – and, most recently, Iron Man co-writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby.

Order of the Seven had originally been envisioned as a Natalie Portman vehicle. Earlier this year, though, Oscar-nominee Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, Hanna) was set to headline the film as a young 19th century Englishwoman who flees Hong Kong, in order to escape “an ancient evil empress” – and, thereafter, seeks refuge with “seven men belonging to an ancient order dedicated to fighting demons and dragons” (as was to be played by an all-star cast of international martial arts sensations).

lthough Order of the Seven had technically not been greenlit, the film was slated to begin production this summer – under visual effects supervisor Michael Gracey’s direction. Disney has halted all development work on the project, reportedly due to concerns over the budget (which is being kept under wraps).

Last year, Disney likewise hit the brakes on its Lone Ranger movie over concerns about the spiraling costs. However, whereas that western managed to get back on track fairly quickly – thanks in no small part to highly-bankable star Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski being attached – the personnel connected to Order of the Seven aren’t enough to ensure such a fast recovery. Hence, unless the budget is reworked to earn the approval of Disney heads, this project may continue to run in circles – similar to Ron Howard’s Dark Tower movie and Warner Bros.’ live-action Akira remake.

That would be kind of disappointing, seeing how Order of the Seven was starting to sound more interesting. Then again, given how long it’s lingered in development – and the number of people who’ve worked on the script over the years, this could’ve been (or still may be) the next Cowboys & Aliens - for better or worse.

[GeneChing]

I had this fantasy of doing a trilogy of reviews:
Snow White the Swordswoman? MIRROR, MIRROR
Snow White the Swordswoman? SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN
Snow White the Swordswoman? SNOW AND THE SEVEN

Unfortunately, there wasn't a local screener for SW&TH. That's usually a bad sign.

Snow White unleashes her inner action hero
Michael Ordoña
Sunday, May 27, 2012

Kristen Stewart plays Snow White as an action hero who trades in her crown for armor and a sword under the tutelage of a huntsman, played by Chris Hemsworth, in "Snow White and the Huntsman."

Once upon a time, it seemed not every Hollywood movie was based on a story for kids - a comic, a book series, something out of Grimm. But if, as some believe, there really are only seven or so stories in the world, even that belief was a fairy tale. Still, the familiar complaint that movie plots are too ... familiar is hard to rebut when the redoubtable Snow White falls on TV, direct-to-video and cineplex screens five times this year.

Why the fascination with a character best known as Disney's second most inactive princess (Sleeping Beauty retains that crown)? Since the Brothers Grimm collected it among other tales in 1812, her story has been retold in more forms than an Evil Queen can disguise herself in.

There have been more than 30 films, shorts and TV shows; essays and novels (A.S. Byatt, Angela Carter); short stories (Neil Gaiman); songs (the Cure, Rammstein); video games; and an anime ("Mario OVA" with Princess Peach as Snow White and King Koopa as the Evil Queen). There are even poems by Alexander Pushkin, Roald Dahl and Anne Sexton ("Beauty is a simple passion/ But, oh my friends, in the end/ You will dance the fire dance in iron shoes"). And as San Francisco theatergoers know, Snow is cool in the as-much-a-fixture-as-permafrost "Beach Blanket Babylon."

In the Christopher Booker reductionist view that only seven plots exist, her story best fits the "Overcoming the Monster" category. If the Snow White name conveys anything, it's purity. That's also purity of character design; she is traditionally uncomplicated. She is passive and good and eminently rescueable.

She's the one the serving suggestion says you're to root for even if her primary attributes are inertia and gullibility - in the original Grimm version, she gets tricked not once, but three times by the Evil Queen's prank gifts. "Fool me once, shame on you ... fool me twice, shame on me ..."

Interestingly, early versions of the tale have her at odds with not her wicked stepmother but her murderous mother - quite a different, more horrifying message. The heroine we all know has no such stain of insanity in her genes, nor such deep psychological scars.

Yet here Snow is again, and there, and there. It's practically a blizzard.

In ABC's "Once Upon a Time," Snow, Prince Charming, Rumplestiltskin and others populate the suspiciously named community of Storybrooke. If you've seen "Once," you may have seen it twice: Stipulated, "Once" is a supernatural soap opera in which many of the fairy-tale characters are unaware of their magical lives, but ABC also had a late-'80s series called "The Charmings," in which Snow and Prince live out a wacky modern suburban existence.

And that's without noting NBC's "Grimm," a police procedural in which fairy-tale refugees commit lots of crimes in Portland, Ore., which smacks a bit of "Night Stalker" and "X-Files."
Four new Snow White movies

Apart from the ABC show, there are no fewer than four new Snow White movies this year: April's "Mirror Mirror" and June's "Snow White and the Huntsman" in theaters, plus two direct-to-video extravaganzas, "Grimm's Snow White" and "Snow White: A Deadly Summer," which seems to exist, although there's precious little evidence of it.

According to Horror News.net, "Grimm's" features a blond Snow White, ravenous lizards, "giant hyena-dog-things and elf ninjas." And it was made by the folks behind "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus," who clearly belong in a cinematic asylum. It has to be good.

"Deadly Summer" apparently has little connection to the fairy tale beyond the protagonist's name and a mean stepmother who has psychotic episodes involving a mirror (Maureen McCormick marshaling her inner evil). It's a slasher flick that looks from its trailer to be shot through egregious blue filters. Perhaps that's the filmmakers' clever, meta way of saying this is a metaphorical filter revealing the deeper meanings of ... no, actually, it just looks like an excuse to chop up teens at a discipline camp during fake nighttime.

The new theatrical features, however, refract the story through the lens of a more modern view of female strength. As if the studios had anticipated the current brouhaha over a "war on women," they magically have on their hands two movies about women who wage war in return. Here come the conspiracy theories!

In the beautifully designed "Mirror Mirror," the Audrey Hepburn-esque heroine (Lily Collins, daughter of Phil) meanders prettily through the Evil Queen's oppression of not just her but her entire kingdom (the 99 percent). Then she experiences a Buddha-like awakening to the plight of the poorest around her when finally free of the hypnotic trappings of palace luxury.

A band of diminutive, bullied outcasts teach her to fight back. Her transition from rose to thorn eventually means freedom for her people and acceptance for the dwarves. So for them, it gets better. And the film grossed more than $150 million worldwide in its first six weeks, so those on the business end lived happily ever after.

"Snow White and the Huntsman" did not screen in time for advance press, but from all indications depicts the heretofore inactive princess taking arms against a sea of troubles, on an epic scale. Kristen Stewart goes from vampires (in "Twilight") to witches (Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen) and a Thor-oughly hunky Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) in another envisioning of Snow as warrior princess.

Evil Queen-slaying arts

Advance materials play up the action and remarkable visuals, with Snow escaping from prison and not being killed by the Huntsman, but being trained in the Evil Queen-slaying arts by him. This Snow White ditches the princess dress for black armor and sword.

If even this passive-figure-becomes-warrior-princess twist sounds familiar, it is: "Huntsman's" producer, Joe Roth, recently struck the billion-dollar bell with the "Lord of the Rings"-ish Tim Burton "Alice in Wonderland." It also resonates as another in Booker's handful of plots ("Voyage and Return" or "Rebirth").

Perhaps there really are only seven stories in the world.

Snow White and the Huntsman (PG-13) opens Friday at Bay Area theaters.
To see a trailer, go to snowwhiteandthehuntsman.com.


Non-crummy fairy-tale movies
Disney's animated stable contains some of the best-known fairy-tale movies, but here are others of note.

Classics

Jean Cocteau's "La Belle et La Bête" (1946) and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's "The Red Shoes" (1948) are considered by some to be the greatest live-action films based on children's stories. The Cocteau placed No. 26 on Empire's 2010 list of 100 best films of world cinema. "Red Shoes" won two Oscars amid multiple nominations.

The five-film "Shrek" franchise is justly adored for marrying kids' excitement with sly humor for adults in its reimagining of well-known stories from other points of view.
Fractured, in a good way

"Freeway" (1996): Reese Witherspoon is a runaway teen stalked by Keifer Sutherland, a serial killer (Bob Wolverton), on her way to Grandma's house. Yep, it's a twisted twist on "Little Red Riding Hood": violent, sexual, weird. Two thumbs up! It's wickedly funny.

"The Company of Wolves" (1984): More shades of "Little Red Riding Hood," this time using wolves and transformation as metaphors for sexuality. It's as dark as the woods, and full of frightening creatures - and its intelligence is thick as the trees. Highly recommended.

"Pretty Woman" (1990): It has its charms, although a more realistically cast hooker-as-Cinderella tale would switch Julia Roberts and Richard Gere with Juno Temple and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Their own stories

"The Princess Bride" (1987): The most quotable film on this list also may be simply the best. Rob Reiner's film of William Goldman's book captures the wonder of bedtime stories at their best, with a great script, top-notch cast (including Mandy Patinkin, Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest) and superb sword fighting. A classic.

"Legend" (1985): Ridley Scott, unicorns, Tom Cruise, the lovely Mia Sara and Tim Curry in awesome demon makeup. Looks great; that's about it.

[GeneChing]

Sounds like I didn't miss much.

'Snow White and the Huntsman' review: Dwarfed
Mick LaSalle
Friday, June 1, 2012

SNOOZING VIEWER

Action drama. Starring Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron. Directed by Rupert Sanders. (PG-13. 127 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)

Fairy tales have an eerie way of saying more than they say and meaning more than we know. They're like the presentable face of the unconscious, suggesting darker terrors; and because they touch on something primal, they last forever - as opposed to really bad Kristen Stewart movies, which last a season at most.

In this latter category, we find "Snow White and the Huntsman," which takes everything mythic about "Snow White" and pounds it out until it's flat and dead. It takes something whose truth is elusive and turns it into a movie that's obvious and trivial. The fairy tale becomes an action movie, and Snow White achieves her apotheosis as a military leader. The fairest of them all is full of righteous anger and wants to kill people.

But how is Kristen Stewart as the fairy tale heroine? The truth is that she's irrelevant, just an element in flimsy design that's fleshing out an empty idea. Watch her in close-up, doing her best to think her way through the part, to add a human element. She's trapped and going nowhere. In his first feature film, director Rupert Sanders runs to the security and comfort of the literal - and ends up directing every performance in a narrow, naturalistic way. For a movie that has its roots and life in a fairy tale, this approach is deadly.

Only one scene springs to life, one in which Snow White wakes up in an enchanted forest and walks around, looking on as little white fairies pop out of birds, ride on top of tortoises and hide behind flowers. Sanders films Stewart in an extreme close-up, then turns his camera on the forest and lets his special-effects people work their magic. The result is a fantastic little oasis that has nothing to do with the plot and yet everything to do with what this movie might have been, but isn't.

"Snow White and the Huntsman" has a single innovation, hardly something to build a movie around, and that's the emphasis on the Huntsman as a key character. Here he's played by Chris Hemsworth, an actor that you can tell is Australian without checking, simply by the fact that he seems like a grown man, and yet he's still in his 20s (i.e., the Heath Ledger effect). The Huntsman becomes Snow White's protector, a hard-drinking, hard-fighting tough guy with some real sadness in his past. Yet strangely - especially in a movie that goes on forever - the story of his relationship with Snow White feels curtailed.

"Snow White and the Huntsman" suffers from a problem in its rhythm. It's not that its pace is too slow, but that it's too regular, and this lack of syncopation makes it feel slow. Every event is given equal importance. And so, when a dwarf dies - a character the audience barely cares about - this becomes a death scene, followed by a funeral, followed by an elegiac song.

Most disheartening of all is the realization that sinks in very soon that you're watching an action movie that can only resolve in a series of battle scenes. So everything weird, everything internal and everything magical about the story and the characters must be suppressed, and we're left with a movie that could have been about anybody. By the time Stewart appears in a suit of armor, like Joan of Arc, exhorting her people to do battle, like Henry V, this film has gone off the rails, down the mountain and into a ravine.

As the Evil Queen, Charlize Theron is this accident's lone survivor. Here the director's naturalistic approach works, in that the queen, as a role, is juicy enough to lend itself to psychological nuance. Theron makes her genuinely twisted and diabolical and yet recognizably human in her self-pity and narcissism.

But she has a very peculiar mirror. Indeed, the whole conflict in "Snow White and the Huntsman" could have been avoided had the mirror only told the truth. When the mirror says, and with a straight face, that Stewart and not Theron is the fairest of them all, he was clearly just making trouble.

[doug maverick]

i actually hope this film does well, so disney can start up snow and the seven again...mirror mirror bombed so hard nobody wants to find it(n***a's in paris joke-hey this song got frances president elected it should be referenced for jokes..lol) so if this one succeeds disney will be inclined to start it up..if it bombs they'll be happy to avoid it.

[GeneChing]

It was a shame about Mirror Mirror because it was actually enjoyable, especially if you're into Tarsem Singh. As for Disney stopping S&t7 because John Carter tanked, well, Avengers falls under the Disney umbrella so I don't know what they're moaning about.

[doug maverick]

well with avengers...remember there is alot of profit sharing going on there robert downey stands to make 100million and sam jackson isnt to far behind him...both of them have giant backend deals with marvel...also marvel even thou its owned by disney still operates on its own...much like pixar and miramax did...so there is that... avengers was 200 million plus advertising lets call it a cool 275-300m. its earned over a billion dollars... disney probably gets half that... so 500million minus 300 million equals 200million, which was the cost of john carter...john carter was 200million plus another 50 in promo. factor in foreign sales which in all honesty probably recouped the budget...and disney comes out with about 50million....theyll make way more on the dvds of both films...so add dvd, ppv, and cable... probably puts them around 150million in black.


lol...i could write a paper on it..lol


anyway in better news looks like snow white and the huntsmen is going to be a smash...so we may see "the order of the seven"

Jun 2 2012 01:15 PM ET

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Box office update: 'Snow White and the Huntsman' leads with $20.3 mil on Friday; 'The Avengers' becomes third biggest movie of all time
by John Young
Tags: Box Office, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Stewart, Movie Biz, Snow White and the Huntsman, News

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Image Credit: Alex Bailey

No poison apple here. The action fairy tale Snow White and the Huntsman debuted to a solid $20.3 million on Friday, according to early estimates, and is headed for a $55 million weekend.

That should come as a relief to Universal Pictures, which released the floundering Battleship two weeks ago. The result is also a boon for star Kristen Stewart, who had yet to successfully open a movie outside the Twilight franchise. Still, Snow White arrived with a pricey $170 million budget and will need to also perform admirably overseas to justify its cost.

The PG-13 film received an okay “B” rating from CinemaScore audiences, of which 53 percent was female — a surprisingly low figure for a movie many assumed would skew heavily female. According to CinemaScore, 48 percent of ticket buyers listed “Actress in a lead role” as their reason for seeing Snow White, which could refer to either Stewart or Charlize Theron. However, 34 percent also checked off “Actor in a lead role,” meaning Universal was wise to increase the marketing exposure of costar Chris Hemsworth.

Among holdovers, Men in Black 3 dropped 53 percent for $8.3 million, and should finish the weekend with about $29 million. That’ll bring its two-week tally to $112 million. By comparison, Men in Black and Men in Black II had made $139.6 million and $132.7 million after two weekends. To be fair, though, those movies had a head start by opening on a Wednesday, whereas Men in Black 3 did not.

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In third, The Avengers fell 42 percent to $5.7 million. On Friday, the Disney movie passed The Dark Knight‘s $533.3 million tally to become the third-highest-grossing domestic release of all time, behind only Avatar ($760.5 million) and Titanic ($658.6 million including its 3-D re-release). And while The Avengers should have no problem reaching $600 million, it’ll likely fall short of toppling either James Cameron picture. Disney also announced today that The Avengers passed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 to become the third biggest movie globally. So far the superhero flick has collected $1.33 billion worldwide.

Rounding out the top five were Battleship and The Dictator with $1.4 million and $1.39 million, respectively. The two movies will fight for fourth place, along with the British comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which earned $1.3 million yesterday at 1,294 theaters. Check back here on Sunday for the complete box office report.

1. Snow White and the Huntsman — $20.3 mil
2. Men in Black 3 — $8.3 mil
3. The Avengers — $5.7 mil
4. Battleship — $1.4 mil
5. The Dictator — $1.39 mil

[GeneChing]

A sequel? Man, I still haven't seen the first one. Not that I've been planning to do so.

There's actually a lot more to this interview. I only cut&pasted the first part of page three which was about Snow. There's a lot more about Kristen's sex scenes in On the Road. She say **** an awful lot. Follow the link if that interests you.

Honor Roll 2012: Kristen Stewart Goes 'On the Road' to Find Sex, Dancing and -- Just Maybe -- an Award

OK, but to play devil’s advocate: where are you going to go with your character in a “Snow White” sequel?

Oh, it’s gonna be ****in’ amazing. No, I’m so excited about it, it’s crazy.

Can you give me a hint of where it goes?

I’m not allowed. The other day I said that there was a strong possibility that we’re going to make a sequel, and that’s very true, but everyone was like, “Whoa, stop talking about it.” So no, I’m totally not allowed to talk about it.

But it’s fair to say that there are ideas that have been discussed that totally justify it for you.

Oh my God. ****, yeah. Absolutely. And we’ve got a really amazing… [smiles] So, yeah. It’s all good. [laughs]

[GeneChing]

The Princess and the Seven Kung Fu Masters now has a facebook page.

facebook page: 笑功震武林

trailer: 笑功震武林 官方預告片

Sammo + Wong Jing promises to be uber silly in that caricature HK way.

[GeneChing]

So I finally saw Snow White and the Huntsman. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It's all about Charlize as the evil queen. She's a great vampy villainess, a redux of Michelle Pfieffer's witch in Stardust. There are some amusing nods to the Disney version and lots of sword fights (which are mediocre at best) and plenty of CGI effects. On the whole, it takes itself way to seriously trying to be the next LotR franchise. It's a fantasy world where the regal don't 'got **** all over them' and everyone else does. Liam is Thor - I just can't get past that. Kristen Stewart is again the object of attention for two hunky guys. When in Cadaques, we saw Catch That Kid (2004), starring a coquettish Kristen caught between two dudes again. She was good in that, btw. It's a totally dumb Disney flick, featured Corbin Bleu, a black kid with a huge 'fro that Disney was trying to push back then. The story is the three kids are trying to rob a super bank safe which is more guarded that Magneto's cell. It certainly set the tone for Kristen's Twilight menage a trois, and this - totally ironic as she's come out gay since - perhaps that is what those early casting directors saw in her. I just can't get past her buck teeth. So there are tiresome Liam/Kristen scenes that you just want to fast forward over, some armored battle sword fights that are mediocre, and some great Charlize vamping it up scenes. Just watch the Charlize scenes are you're good.

Prequel might be good. Looks like more Charlize, plus Emily Blunt....and Thor too, but whatev... seeing how it looks more like the Snow Queen, I just gotta 'let it go'.



I'm still holding out for Snow and the Seven. It would be best if that was directed by Stephen Chow.

[GeneChing]