New 'Snow White and the Huntsman' Info from Producer Joe Roth

Usatoday: Studio: Universal Pictures
Opening: June 1, 2012; previously Dec. 21, 2012
Filming starts: The second week of August in London and Wales
Director: Rupert Sanders, a Brit known for cutting-edge video games
Tone: Swashbuckling. "It's an epic treatment of the material," says producer Joe Roth.
Plot: The evil queen hires a huntsman to assassinate her stepdaughter, Snow White, so she can rule the land. Instead, he joins forces with the fair maiden.
The dwarfs: There are eight, named after Roman leaders including Caesar, Tiberius and Nero. Special effects will be used to change the dimensions of average-height actors.


Producer Joe Roth Talks About SWATH

Producer Joe Roth, who describes Snow White and the Huntsman as a swashbuckler akin to Pirates of the Caribbean, says the initial date change came about because "it felt like a summer movie, like an old-fashioned Disney action adventure."

He's not too rattled that Universal's attempt to open first was thwarted by Relativity. The former Disney exec went through the same thing in 1998, when Armageddon faced off with another disaster flick, Paramount's Deep Impact, which had opened two months earlier.

"Audiences went to both," Roth says, and Armageddon did considerably better at the box office — $202 million compared with $140.5 million — even though it opened second.

Roth is resigned that his Snow White is staying put: "I'd like to tell you it is coming out this Christmas, but that's not happening."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As for Stewart, her Snow starts off downtrodden until the huntsman, who has been hired by the queen to kill her, teaches her to live in the woods and use weaponry. "She learns the way of the world," Roth says, "and toughens up."

Of course, both Snow Whites eventually avenge the wrongs done to them by the queen.

That sort of approach usually leads to happy endings in fairy tales, Roth says, but not when two studios are duking it out for box-office gold. "The only thing I will say is I've never seen revenge as a reason for people to go to the movies."

via @KstewAngel