Disney Halts Development On Revisionist Snow White Film ‘The Order Of The Seven’
For a decade, Disney has been preparing a new live-actionSnow Whitefilm, and in the couple years it has taken the shape ofThe Order of the Seven,previouslySnow and the Seven, a film that would re-cast the Seven Dwarfs as a band of international warriors (the better to court non-US box office) protectingSaoirse Ronan. The Snow White character was to be re-imagined as “a young woman in 19th century Hong Kong who escapes her wicked stepmother and takes refuge with seven men belonging to an ancient order dedicated to fighting demons and dragons.”
Mark FergusandHawk Ostbywere hired to rework the script very recently, and commercial helmerMichael Graceywasset to make his directorial debutwith the movie. (Scott Elder and Josh Harmon originally wrote, and Michael Arndt rewrote last year, with Francis Lawrence previously attached to direct.) But now it is off.THRsays that all development on the film has stopped, and that this is part of the fallout fromJohn Carter’s poor financial showing. Reportedly the increasing budget onOrder of the Seven, combined with concerns over having a first-time feature director overseeing the film, were also factors in the shutdown.
Plus, Disney is still without a studio chief in the wake of the departure of Rich Ross, who had put this version of the film into active development. (Note that the movie was not actually greenlit, but it was approaching that point.)
Disney shut down another film last year, the big-budgetThe Lone Ranger. But that ended up reworked and shooting under the direction of Gore Verbinski as planned, with Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in the lead roles.The Order of the Sevenmay not have the same fate, however, as it doesn’t have the Disney cachet of being from the team behind the mega-earningPirates of the Caribbeanseries. There’s also the fact of the two live-action Snow White films already existing in 2012.Mirror Mirrorhasalready been releasedto tepid box office, andSnow White and the Huntsmanwill hit on June 1.
