Snow White may have met her match come 2012.
I’m not referring to her battling the Mayan calendar; nor am I referring to a revisionist approach to the classic tale where Prince Charming transitions into a Princess. What I am referring to are the forthcoming projects set for the big and small screens in which she will be battling herself. Well, technically not herself—but herself played by different actors. Currently there are two Snow White films set for production and scheduled to be released within the same month of each other as well as an ABC television drama all revolving around the beloved raven haired beauty. It appears that 2012 will be the year of Snow White.
There should be a claymation boxing match between these two films because it’s about to get ugly—if it hasn’t already. In the one corner, you have Universal Picture’s Snow White and the Huntsman starring Kristen Stewart and all her lip biting glory as the lead. Additional cast members include Charlize Theorn as the Evil Queen and the newly appointed Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman. In the other corner, Relativity Media brings you the relatively unknown, daughter of Phil Collins, Lily Collins in The Brothers Grimm: Snow White (cue the crowd’s banter). Add Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen and Armie Hammer as The Prince and we have ourselves a match!
Originally, Snow White and the Hunstman was slated to be released on December 21, 2012 while The Brothers Grimm: Snow White was slated for June 29, 2012. Now though, Universal just announced that it was pushing up the release date for the Huntsman, which is now set for June 1, 2012…4 weeks before The Brothers Grimm version (ouch). Universal is planning to start principal photography in August while Relativity is planning to start shooting in June. The close proximity to the shooting and release dates makes for a very exciting next couple of months, if not weeks, to see which one makes it out of the gate first—because as history has shown, whoever makes it out of the gate first, wins.
Just as Capote was to Infamous and Alexander was to Alexander the Great, what will these two Snow White films be to each other? In similar circumstances, Capote was the first film to be released revolving around Truman Capote. It garnered critical acclaim and won an Oscar for its lead. Once Infamous was released several months later, movie audiences didn’t seem to care—and why should they? Two films about the same character, within a year of each other equals death. Just ask Baz Luhrmann’s Alexander the Great. If you can’t recall Alexander the Great it’s because it was a movie that never was. In this instance there were two rival studios, both with A-list actors attached to their respective projects but Oliver Stone’s version went into production first and the Luhrmann film inevitably was abandoned, having already spent close to $1 million on production costs—and what a winner of a movie the Oliver Stone film was (not really).
So as these two Snow White films battle it out not just to the finish line, but also to the start line, one will go down as champion while the other will be laid to rest. One thing is for certain though…Cinderella must be jealous.
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