While all the dwarfs for Tarsem’s currently untitled Snow White project have been announced, Universal’s rival Snow White And The Huntsman has been slightly lagging behind on that score. However now the movie has its lead dwarf, and while Tarsem’s movie has cast little people in the roles, Huntsman is going for 5’9″ frame of Ian McShane for its main dwarf, and then presumably making him smaller with special effects.
THR reports that the dwarf will be called Caesar, and that casting is now ongoing for the rest of the crew. Interestingly, /Film notes that in the script there are eight dwarves, all named after Roman leaders. So in addition to Caesar (the oldest, who has a long beard), there’s Nero (who’s angry), Tiberius (big and burly), Hadrian and Trajan (who are twins), Constantine (solemn and blind), Claudius (who is timid) and Gus (the youngest, who’s seemingly smitten with Snow White).
Rupert Sanders is directing, with Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Charlize Theron as the evil queen and Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman. The movie is a slightly different take on the story than usual, concentrating on the relationship between Snow White and the man told to take her into the woods and kill her. In most versions, the Huntsman just allows her to run off, but here he’ll help her learn survival skills. There is still a Prince though, to be played by On Stranger Tide’s Sam Claflin.
Snow White and the Huntsman is due June 2012, while Tarsem’s rival project is trying to get a jump on things by coming out in March. In fact next year is going to be a bit of a fairy tale time for McShane, because as well as Snow White, he’s got Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Killer coming out, with the two movie currently set to be released only two weeks apart.