Am I about to eat my words? It's funny how an early perception of a project can change when certain talent start circling.
Back in June, I wrote a rather scathing piece blaming you guys for pushing Tim Burton's soulless 3-D adaptation of Alice In Wonderland to a billion dollar gross which proved to be the catalyst for a whole host of 'edgy' re-workings of classic fables winning movie deals, including Brett Ratner's awful sounding and supposed 'edgy'
Brothers Grimm: Snow White, in 3D. At least it was awful until I read
Pajiba this morning, and maybe I'm ready to shake off some of my initial skepticism. They say that none other than probable 2011 Oscar winner
Natalie Portman (yup, she is suppose to be THAT good in Black Swan) is interested in playing the good-hearted 'fairest of them all' with the talented
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, Delicatessen) hoping to direct. Boy how the cards have changed, eh? Though I guess at this point it would be wise to keep in mind that Portman and Jeunet only have some interest in Ratner's pitch, and no deals are even close to being made yet. Both talents, and especially Portman, probably look at a several dozen screenplays/pitches a week. And if Portman wasn't already in demand before 2010, then she certainly will be next year the way things are going. But I'm always happy to play 'what if?', and the idea of Portman and Jeunet collaborating together on a version of the Brothers Grimm fable that could be full of whimsy, wonder and imagination - and well, it suddenly sounds like something I would want to see. More amazing to me is that the project is setup at Disney, who I would have thought would be pushing a Natalie Portman or an Anne Hathaway to star in a Tim Burton-ized adaptation of the famous tale, rather than something potentially cult-ish and just plain weird. Or maybe they are hoping to water down Jeunet?
Ratner said in June;
"This is not your grandfather's Snow White," Ratner said. "Melisa went back to the 500 year old folk tale and put in some of the things that were missing from Walt Disney's film. His dwarves were miners, and here they are robbers. There is also a dragon that was in the original folk tale. Walt made one of the great movies of all time, but ours is edgy and there is more comedy. The original, made for its time, was soft compared to what we're going to do."
Portman's got
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in the offing too we shouldn't forget, and Brothers Grimm: Snow White might be a hurdle too far classic tales turned horror yarns. But we'll keep an eye on this.