Another casting rumor–Johnny Depp sought for SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

According to Jeff Sneider at TheWrap, Johnny Depp “has been offered the male lead in Universal’s upcoming tentpole Snow White and the Huntsman.” Producer Joe Roth worked with Johnny on the blockbuster Alice in Wonderland, and might be looking to capture more of that billion-dollar box-office magic. This won’t be your grandmother’s Snow White, however; described as a “revisionist take on the classic fairy tale,” the script by Evan Daugherty “features an expanded role for the Huntsman.” In the original story, the Huntsman is the evil queen’s hit man, but he lets Snow White go free in the woods rather than killing her. In Daugherty’s script, Sneider reports, the Huntsman is “chained to Snow White for part of the live-action movie as the duo make their escape from a pair of bounty hunters. The Huntsman then serves as a mentor who teaches the teenage Snow White how to fight against her evil step-mother, Ravenna. And don’t worry — a handsome prince is still the love interest.” So Snow White and the Huntsman don’t live happily ever after. Good to know . . . .

Universal wants to start production on Snow White and the Huntsman in January 2011, with British commercials director Rupert Sanders at the helm; Snow White will be Sanders’s first feature film. The studio has announced plans to release the film on Dec. 21, 2012. The holiday release “proves that it’s a high priority for Universal,” notes Sneider.

Steven Zeitchik of the Los Angeles Times reports that no fewer than three new versions of the Snow White fairy tale are on the horizon: Universal’s revisionist Snow White and the Huntsman; a more-true-to-the-Brothers-Grimm version to be directed by Tarsem Singh for “the upstart distributor Relativity,” with a start date in March 2011; and a new Disney version “with the dwarfs reimagined as Kung Fu-practicing Shaolin monks.” [No, we’re not making that up. You can find the Los Angeles Times story HERE.] The Zone thanks Emma for breaking the Snow White story and FANtasticJD for sharing the Los Angeles Times article; you can read much more on the Zone’s News & Views forum.

“Lots of casting rumors in the past few days that Johnny Depp is being ‘offered’ the role of the Huntsman,” notes Zeitchik, “but really, what role isn’t he offered?” Good point: we await word that Johnny Depp has been offered the roles of all seven Kung Fu-practicing Shaolin monks in the Disney version. Snow White and the Seven Depps, anyone?