Casting “Cinderella”: Who should play the next fairy tale princess opposite Cate Blanchett?

November 27, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting, Features 1 Comment

Move over, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, the next fairy tale princess is ready for her moment in the spotlight. Ok, so “Mirror Mirror” and “Snow White and the Huntsman” didn’t exactly light the box office on fire, and “Maleficent” is still a big question mark, but Disney is ready to move forward on another live action big screen adaptation of another fairy tale. This time, it’s “Cinderella”, and it’s happening fast, with Mark Romanek already set to direct and acclaimed Aussie actress Cate Blanchett in negotiations to join the ranks of Julia Roberts, Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie in playing an iconic evil stepmother.

This project dates all the way back to 2010, when “The Devil Wears Prada” screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna wrote the original draft and Amanda Seyfried was cast in the titular role. But as The Wrap points out now, Blanchett is officially the first cast member of this new incarnation of the project, which has also gotten a rewrite from Chris Weitz, so we still need a girl to fit into those awfully specific and constricting glass slippers. Here are just five of our favorite suggestions:

Emma Watson attached to new “Beauty and the Beast” adaptation for Guillermo del Toro

July 18, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 3 Comments

After a quick stop in the real world for teen drama “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, it seems “Harry Potter” series star Emma Watson is eager to step back into the dark and fantastical realm that she’s so familiar with. ComingSoon.net reports the actress is attached to star in a new adaptation of classic fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast”, and at the steering wheel is visionary sci-fi director Guillermo del Toro.

Details are scarce as the project appears to be in its early stages, with “Crazy Stupid Love” producer Denise di Novi only recently telling CS that she’s in development on the project with del Toro. The director, of course, will be busy for the next several months as he gears up to shoot the highly ambitious sci-fi epic “Pacific Rim”, starring Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Idris Elba and Charlie Day as soldiers who operate giant robots in a war against an alien attack.

As for Watson, her schedule is all clear with “Perks” having wrapped a couple of weeks ago and publicity commitments to “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ done (and to great effect – the film just had the biggest box office opening weekend of all time). She’ll next be seen in what could be a star-making turn, as Eddie Redmayne’s love interest in “My Week with Marilyn”, opening this fall.

Lily Collins will be “Snow White” opposite Armie Hammer and Julia Roberts

April 1, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Relativity pulls ahead of the pack one step further as it finally casts its titular princess in “The Brothers Grimm: Snow White”. Variety reports that Lily Collins is the fairest of them all who will romance Armie Hammer as Prince Andrew and defy Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen. The studio toyed with the idea of casting 16-year-old Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan in the title role, but the age difference with already-cast 24-year-old Hammer was a cause for hesitation. Collins, who is 22, is much more age appropriate while still maintaining Snow White’s core innocence and fragility. Director Tarsem Singh begins lensing in May for a projected June 29, 2012 release.

“Grimm”, written by Melissa Wallack and Jason Keller, will be a darker and modernized retelling of the Grimm classic, and will see Collins’ Snow White banding together with her handsome prince and seven quarrelsome dwarves to take down the Evil Queen. It will beat its direct competitor, Universal’s “Snow White and the Huntsman” to the box office by six months, with the Charlize Theron-Kristen Stewart vehicle due to begin filming late summer and hitting theaters on December 21, 2012. “Huntsman” also suffered a large casting setback recently as Viggo Mortensen officially exited talks with the studio to take on the role of the Huntsman after months of negotiations. Meanwhile, at Disney, “Toy Story 3″‘s Oscar-winning scribe Michael Arndt is hard at work on a third version of the story, “Snow and the Seven”, set in Medieval China.

Collins, daughter of Phil and one of our faces to watch in 2011, who broke out in 2009′s “The Blind Side”, has been landing one high profile role after another in recent months. First she was cast as lead character Clary Fray in Screen Gems’ adaptation of “The Mortal Instruments”, then beat out the likes of Emma Roberts, Kat Dennings and Portia Doubleday for the female lead in “Odd Thomas” opposite Anton Yelchin. She’ll next be seen in sci-fi thriller “Priest” opposite Paul Bettany and teen-oriented actioner “Abduction” opposite “Twilight”‘s Taylor Lautner.

First look: Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner in costume on the set of “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters”

March 31, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Images Leave a comment

Check out these pictures of Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner in costume on the set of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters!

Taken on Wednesday 31st March by Accidental Sexiness, Arterton and Renner play the titular characters of the classic Brother’s Grimm fairytale, about a young brother and sister who find a house constructed of cake and confectionary. Set 15 years after the original tale, Hansel and Gretel have grown up to become a brother-and-sister team of professional witch hunters.

Featured in our round up of fairytale to film adaptations, this reimagining has been billed as a horror action film, and also features Famke Janssen, Peter Stormare and Ingrid Bolsø Berda.
Directed by Tommy Wirkola, it is set for a release date of March 12th 2012.

Click below to see the gallery of set pictures

Hailee Steinfeld attached to play revisionist “Sleeping Beauty”

March 29, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

If you were concerned “Sleeping Beauty” was conspicuously missing from our round-up of upcoming revisionist fairy tale adaptations, worry no longer! Deadline reports that indeed, a modern take on just about the last fairy tale that hasn’t been scooped up is now in the works, and it’s attracted some star power in the form of red-hot “True Grit” star and Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld, who is attached to play the title character.

Of course, you can’t bring a fairy tale to life on the big screen these days without adding in some modern twists and in the spec script by Lindsay Devlin, which is currently out to buyers, the tale is told from the sleeping princess’s point of view, and will follow her as she enters a fantastical dream world and has to find her way out. A bit of unfortunate timing here as Zack Snyder’s recently released “Sucker Punch” has left something of a bitter aftertaste in moviegoers’ mouths with its sloppy execution of a similar concept. However, with 14-year-old Steinfeld front and center, we can assume this dream world will be more straight forward and family friendly.

Hollywood is eager to woo Steinfeld for their various projects as they bet on her to be the next big star of Young Hollywood, and this is the second project that’s being crafted as a starring vehicle specifically for the young Oscar nom. As previously reported, Paramount is developing “Forgotten” for her, based on the novel by Cat Patrick. Neither “Forgotten” nor “Sleeping Beauty” appear to be anywhere close to production though, and while she came close to landing the lead role in “The Hunger Games”, Steinfeld has yet to lock down her next project following her breakout moment in “True Grit”.

Once Upon a Time: A Fairy Tale Adaptation Round-Up

March 5, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge and Rebecca Lewis in Features 9 Comments

Hang tight to your memories of childhood fairytales, because most of them are about to get a make-over in the next couple of years. Thanks in no small part to the massive success of Tim Burton’s live-action 3-D fantasy “Alice in Wonderland”, nearly every fairytale, legend and folklore is being snatched up by studios to remake, re-invent and re-imagine for the big screen, sometimes more than once (yes, there really are three Snow Whites and two Peter Pans in active development). And each one has a new “twist” to make you believe you’re not paying $14 just to see a tale as old as time. From modern-day Beasts to self-sufficient Snow Whites and grown-up Hansels and Gretels, each new project promises to be “modern”, “edgy” and inevitably, “brand new”.

It all kicked off yesterday with the release of “Beastly”, a modern-day retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” starring Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens. What better place to start?

Start Here: Beastly >>

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Channing Tatum to tell the origin of how “Peter Pan Begins”

March 1, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Because there just aren’t enough fairy tale film adaptations in development, Channing Tatum is the latest star set to bring a classic and iconic fairy tale character to life on the big screen, attaching himself to star in “Peter Pan Begins”, which will tell the origin of the boy who never grows up and lives in a child’s paradise called Neverland. No firm plot details are available, but surely, since some variation of “dark, modern and edgy” have been used to describe every upcoming fairy tale film from “Red Riding Hood” to “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters”, the same adjectives will be thrown in here at some point as well.

THR reports that super fairy-tale-adaptation producer Joe Roth – the man behind “Alice in Wonderland”, and the upcoming “Oz: The Great and Powerful” and “Snow White and the Huntsman” – is pitching the package to studios, with screenwriter Billy Ray penning the script. Ray recently wrote the script for the highly anticipated adaptation of “The Hunger Games”. Tatum was last see in “The Eagle” and “The Dilemma”. He recently wrapped “Ten Year” and “The Vow” and will next film “21 Jump Street” opposite Jonah Hill.

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