Heigh Hooooooo!
Updates on the upcoming live-action Snow White remake have sparse since Disney debuted the first official image of Rachel Zegler (Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Westside Story) as the titular princess and her seven CGI companions, but some new (rumored) plot details are now doing the rounds online.
There was confusion when some set photos featuring a group of regular-sized actors in costume found their way online late last year, leading some to speculate that the classic Seven Dwarfs had been replaced.
According to insider Daniel Richtman, these individuals will actually form a team of "bandits" assembled by Andrew Burnap's character Jonathan (replacing the Prince), and Snow White will still have her seven diminutive allies - though they won't be referred to as Dwarfs.
Richtman has also heard that Snow White will be depicted as "more independent, and lead a rebellion against the Evil Witch," and that they will do "something different" with the whole poisoned apple scenario (though he isn't sure exactly what).
As for the quality of the movie itself, there are conflicting reports. Richtman was told that test-screenings went over very well and that the movie is "great," which does contradict what we've been hearing, which is more along the lines of the following:
Zegler had the following to say about the official still shortly after it was released online.
“This is an iconic thing that people really care about. I don’t want to mess this up for anybody, including myself. The writers and Marc Webb and our entire producing team. It’s a bit different story wise. We were able to do ‘Whistle While You Work,’ which made me really happy and excited. I was really nervous more about the technical element. That first-look image went out… and there’s a lot of CGI in the film.”
“Most of that day was spent singing to nothing,” Zegler went on. “I’m sure you also know how that can be. There was a lot of puppetry and CGI in post. It was really intense. There’s a lot of bloopers of me tossing a broom and letting it fall to the ground because that’s apparently how you toss things off to CGI characters. But it’s so much fun!”
Snow White is helmed by The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb, and is expected to expand upon the 1937 animated classic's story. The movie will feature new songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land and The Greatest Showman), and will also feature Wonder Woman star Gal Gado as the Evil Queen.
The actors for most of the seven "dwarfs" have not been announced, but we do know that Martin Klebba, who has been in all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, will play Grumpy. It's also been confirmed that the movie will include a younger take on Snow White, which suggests that we will get some kind of flashback scenes that will expand on the origin of the title character.
Snow White is scheduled to hit theaters next March.