With both Snow White And The Huntsman and The Brothers Grimm: Snow White gearing up to shoot this year, you’d think there were enough versions of the story getting the big screen treatment. However before either of those films was announced, there was talk of an updated version that Disney was developing (indeed it’s been in the works for nearly a decade), called Snow White and the Seven. As the other two films ramped up, all news on the Disney flick went quiet, with many assuming that the rivals had killed it off.
However it appears the House Of Mouse isn’t ready to give up yet, as THR reports that Oscar winning Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 writer, Michael Arndt, is in talks to take overn scripting duties for the flick. He’s just the latest in a long list of writers who’ve had a crack at the screenplay, but hopefully he’ll have more luck than they did.
While billed as an update on Snow White, it’s only moving things to the 19th Century and relocating them to China (yes, you did read that right). Asia is undoubtedly the big territory Hollywood is desperate to court at the moment, due to its massively explanding box office, so the hope is that despite other similarly themed flicks, Disney’s will have special appeal over there and make big bucks.
The plot is about ‘a 19th century Englishwoman who returns to her Hong Kong home for her father’s funeral, only to discover that her stepmother is plotting against her. She escapes to mainland China, finding solace among a rogue band of seven international warriors.’
Natalie Portman has been circling to star for quite a while, although as she’s now pregnant, she may not be able to do such a physically intense role and it seems unlikely Disney will want to wait for her. Indeed they seem keen to get going as soon as possible, hiring John Mhyre, who won an Oscar for Memoirs Of A Geisha, to start production design on the film’s fairytale world.