I grew up watching Disney Princesses flicks… and to this day I still have a fondness for them. I still have Snow White and Sleeping Beauty on DVD in fact. With the success of Disney’s Tangled, clearly the fascination over them isn’t over, yet. Well, it’s been 74 years since Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs‘ was released in 1937, now the first Disney princess ever is getting not one, but TWO feature film treatment!
You’ve probably heard the buzz about the ‘Snow White battles’ as two studios — Relativity Media and Universal — are planning to release their own version in 2012, within a mere few months between them. The projects sound pretty ambitious, according to LA Times blog, the budget for the Universal’s version is $160 million, wow! I’ve been hearing casting news for both movies left and right in the past few months, but I haven’t really been paying attention as to who are doing what and the difference between two movies until today. So here are a quick guide to tell the two films apart when they’re out next year:
| Untitled Snow White March 16, 2012 |
Snow White & The Huntsman June 1, 2012 |
| Director: Tarsem Singh | Director: Rupert Sanders |
| Cast: Julia Roberts (evil Queen), Armie Hammer (prince charming), Nathan Lane, Mare Winningham | Cast: Charlize Theron (evil queen), Chris Hemsworth (huntsman), Sam Claflin (prince charming), Ian McShane + Eddie Izzard + Bob Hoskins + Toby Jones (dwarfs) |
| Plot: An evil Queen (Roberts) steals control of a kingdom, and an exiled princess (Collins) 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. | Plot: In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman (Hemsworth) ordered to take Snow White (Stewart) into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen (Theron). |
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Well, if we’re to judge the ‘winner’ by its release date, sounds like Tarsem’s version is the frontrunner as his movie will come out first in March. Online reports say they’ve already begun filming. Check out the concept poster to the right that’s already released last week (thanks to Dezzy @ Hollywood Spy for the tip)
The Tarsem version seems more appealing to me out of the two so far, I mean, I’ve never even heard of this Rupert guy and he’s got zero feature film directing credit (apparently he’s done some commercials & shorts, check out his website). I’ve talked about him and Tarsem’s film The Fall quite often in this blog, I admire his singular visual style so for sure this movie is going to look spectacular. His story-telling ability remains to be seen though, as no matter how beautiful The Fall was, it’s not exactly the most comprehensible film to follow. Perhaps it’s not going to be too much of an issue since he tends to gravitate towards fantasy type movies, his upcoming film Immortals fits that category as well.
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On top of that, I’m just not sold on Kristen Stewart’s casting as the princess. I mean, she’s pretty yeah, but I just feel like this is a similar role to Twilight‘s Bella, y’know, the naive young ‘princess.’ And I personally can’t stand how whiny Bella is, it’s so darn irritating! Now, I’ve only seen Lily Collins (yes, she’s Phil’s daughter) in The Blind Side, but I think she was pretty decent in that. She’s drop-dead gorgeous and definitely has that fairy tale princess look about her. At 22, she’s actually older than Stewart by one year, wow she certainly looks a lot younger to me, which is a good thing as I reckon Snow White is supposed to be in her late teens.
I like both Charlize and Julia as the evil queen, but I’d give Julia the edge as I’m curious to see America’s sweetheart play a classic villain icon. According to GeekTyrant, the Indian-born director has this to say about casting Roberts: “She’s the obvious choice of being goody-two-shoes, and I didn’t want an Evil Queen in the sense that already existed…. It can’t be an evil, quintessential queen. I’m looking for a likable evil queen. I couldn’t think of anybody who is more of a likable evil queen than her.”
I also like both picks of Snow White’s love interest as both Hammer and Hemsworth are the tall, dashing, prince-ly type (as these two guys are 6’5″ and 6’3″ respectively, everyone will practically look like dwarfs by comparison, ahah). In this USA Today article, at one point the likes of Johnny Depp, Hugh Jackman, Viggo Mortensen, Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender were in the running for the huntsman role. Wow, if either Hardy or Fassbender had been chosen, that’ll definitely give Tarsem’s version some serious competition!
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Well, in the spirit of a weekly feature on my local radio station called ‘Would You Rather Wednesday,’ which of these two Snow White movies would you rather watch?
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The Sanders version seems to have a lot more going for it in terms of cast. I’m always interested to see what Ian McShane has up his sleeve next. Plus you have a rising star in Hemsworth and you get Hoskins……and Charlize! Not to mention Stewart driving up interest from “Twilight Fans.” Gun to my head at this point…..I’d choose the Huntsman.
Hi Markus, I hear ya. The cast is pretty darn good for the Sanders version but I guess I’m partial to Tarsem and given my reasoning about Stewart (as I’m no Twihard by a long shot), I guess I’m more curious for his version. But yeah, Sanders’ got McShane AND Hemsworth, so yeah I’ll still watch the huntsman, too 😀
My vote is for Tarsem Singh’s Untitled Snow White, for all the reasons you mentioned. It’ll be fun to see Julia in an “evil” role.
Yeah, I think Julia would have fun in the role. This is supposed to be a comedy adventure so I agree w/ Tarsem, she’d be perfect for this.
Oh man! look at that poster! I missed it for today’s post!!! (fail!!) haha
I’m not sure what the movie studios are hoping for with these Snow White stories. One thing’s for sure, they are feeding off of each other for publicity.
I actually am going to place my vote for Snow White and the Huntsman. (Shocking I know, especially with me “love” for Kristen Stewart’s acting!!) But here’s why…1-Not sure about Julia Roberts (America’s Sweetheart) as the evil queen, 2-Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron, 3-I love Ian McShane’s acting, and 4-while I admire Singh’s work, I am interested in seeing Sanders’ debut and what he will do with the talented cast and different story.
I’m going to see both, but I am going to vote for Snow White and The Huntsman
You got that right, T, this so-called ‘battle’ is definitely good to create buzz for both movies.
Ha..ha.. I probably will watch both versions too as I do like the cast of the Huntsman, and I suppose you’re right, having a newbie director might not necessarily be a bad thing. I don’t know if the casting is done for the Tarsem’s version, who knows they might throw in someone equal to Ian McShane on there. As for Kristen, we’ll see how she fares as Snow White, hopefully she won’t be as whiny.
I haven’t see The Fall, so for right now i don’t have a strong preference for either. I will admit i found Kirsten decent in The Runaways and Adventure land, and i haven’t seen the Blind Side, so i guess i have a slight preference for that one
I will have to wait to see the trailers before really deciding tho
I heard Kristen is good in both of those movies, so I guess I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.
Hi, Ruth and company:
The up-coming Sanders ‘Snow White & The Huntsman’ has a much more intriguing cast of voice characters. Not much of a Charlize Theron fan, but having Bob Hoskins and Ian McShane amongst the dwarfs is never a bad thing.
Overall, I’d still fall back on the epic 1937 Walt Disney classic. A wonderful amalgam of lightheartedness and eye-popping animation that’s near perfect in every way!
Another vote for the huntsman, interesting. But yeah Jack, the 1937 one is definitely still the winner… makes me want to watch it again!
I can’t say I’m excited for either of these two films, maybe a rental. Hollywood does this a lot, releasing two movies with the same concept. Remember back in the 90s where they released two Wyatt Earp films, then later with two asteroid films, then two volcano films and finally two Mars films.
If I have to pick, I’d go with Tarsem’s film because I like Julia Roberts.
Yeah, that’s a strange trend indeed. Ah right, you like Roberts. So did you see Eat, Pray, Love? She’s also got that movie coming out w/ Tom Hanks, looks pretty good.
I’m going to have to go with Singh’s version. Mostly because I can guarantee that I won’t share an audience full of Twilight enthusiasts just because Kristen Stewart is in it.
Amen Fitz. If that Taylor kid is joining I’m not even gonna watch the trailer!
Honestly, i don’t have a problem with Taylor, or anyone from Twilight for that matter. Plenty of actors and actresses have taken bad roles in there career, and it doesn’t necessarily mean there bad actors/actresses.
It just seems to me like people have basically written off anyone from twilight as bad without really giving them a chance
Well I don’t think R-Patz is a bad actor, as even with such a poorly-written role I still think he’s more than what I saw in Twilight, and he proved his worth in Remember Me (and even in the one HP movie as Cedric). I didn’t say Kristen is a bad actress, I just think this role is so similar to Bella so I have trepidation that she might play it the same way. I’ve heard that she’s good in a few other movies (The Runaway, Adventureland), but I haven’t seen those yet. As for Taylor, sorry but I think he is utterly awful as Jacob that I don’t feel any desire to watch him in anything else. I don’t think I’ll be missing out if I don’t ever want to see any of his movies.
Stewart was great in Adventureland.
My main problem with Twilight is its fan base, they go to a film and they expect everything with Lautner, Pattinson and Stewart to be the same as their characters in the books.
Tarsem’s SNOW WHITE will be outstanding, I’m totally convinced, while THE HUNTSMAN will be bad thanks to that horrid girl Stewart. If it wasn’t for her, the cast would’ve been outstanding and perfect,but with her the film is already totally ruined.
There are, by the way, two other SNOW WHITE projects, also, one is called SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN and puts Snow White among samurais 🙂
Yeah, I think if they had cast a different actress instead of Stewart, I might be more enthusiastic about that one. Oh boy, there is yet another one?? Snow White amongst Samurais? Wow, I’m curious to see what that’s all about.
I have just read about the tarsem one in Dezz’s blog…and now you’re doing the same 😉
Reading the cast, I feel just like you…tho both queens are great but I prefer to stay away from stewart and Julia as a villain will b nice to see.
We’re kindred spirits apparently, Dezzy and I 😀 I think Julia Roberts will bring a lot of people who otherwise blase about this project. She doesn’t play hardly any villainous roles, so this’ll be interesting to see.
I would say none of the above but if forced at point, I would go with the K-Stew version because it has a twist to the story unlike the more straightforward one from Tarsem.
actually, Castor, Tarsem’s film will have two twists – one will be the visual aspect of the movie and the other will be the fact that it will have comedy elements as well (which is why they chose Nathan Lane as queens hapless servant)
I don’t think anything Tarsem does is straightforward, Castor 😀 Surely it’ll be visually arresting and unique like his other films.
I mostly think the Sanders version sounds more interesting, although I wish we could sort of combine the two in some way, as I’m torn between Roberts/Theron (slight edge: Roberts) and Hammer/Hemsworth.
Yeah, all those four are great casting, it certainly would be nice to see all of them in one movie, especially Hammer and Hemsworth 😀 😀
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I’m going to let Stewart have a slide and focus on Hemsworth. Somehow I think that’s the better combo anyway.
Still I can’t get over those Disney ads that feature Olivia Wilde as the Evil Queen. Once you’ve seen that it’s impossible to see anyone else in the role…
Oh yeah, I remember that photo of Olivia as the evil queen! I’m surprised nobody’s asked her to do the role, she does look perfect in that outfit.
I would definitely be interested in the Julia Roberts version ..mainly because I love her and Hate Kristen Stewart..and i totally agree with you I think this role would be similar to ‘bella’ and your right bella is super annoying.
Glad to hear, Bluej!
I’ definitely go for Tarsem Singh’s version! I’ve had enough of Stewart for 4 years! Don’t get me wrong, I like her and all. She’s edgy, quirky, and not at-all the typical Hollywood actress and I respect her for that. But too much of anything is never a good thing, and she is no exception. Besides, somehow I think Sanders’ version is just… too packed up with all-stars. I’m kinda worried the story line would be flat because of it. I just don’t want the Valentine’s-Day-vaganza to happen again. You know, all star cast yet boring plot? 😛
Hey Wulan, you made a very good point… all-star cast doesn’t guarantee a movie quality at all… I mean, it certainly entice moviegoers but as movies like Valentine’s Day prove, it can be a boring movie if it’s not well-executed.
You know which one I will watch? Neither!!
Unless one of them is shown in a dark fairy tale way, the way they used to be before Walt Disney came along and repackaged them as all fluffy and warm.
I want Pans Labyrinth dark. Have you ever read Snow White? Its a horrid and scary story. Definitely no singing birds in it!!
Great news post my friend, I do love a bit of gossip.
Custard
I wouldn’t mind a dark take on it either mate
Oy noooo, I won’t watch it if they made it like Pan Labyrinth’s dark, that movie has an interesting story and visual but waaay too violent for my taste. It can still be darker and edgier than the Disney version sans the singing birds, just not too overly bloody.
Tarsem’s version should be a visually riveting one. While Rupert’s version should be quite interesting if they can manage the twist well.
Hi Jaccstev, yeah riveting is a good way to describe Tarsem’s work. I’m curious to see Rupert’s version because of the story, we’ll see if he can pull it off.
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