Release Day: "Snow White and the Huntsman"

Snow White and the Huntsman is officially in theaters!

Today is the day and this is the big weekend that will have movie executives everywhere poised in making their fairy tale movie/series decisions for the immediate future. Let's hope, for the sake of fairy tales everywhere, that this film is the fairest of them all - in the business sense at the very least (although I'd dearly love to just see a truly fantastic mainstream fairy tale film).

Rather than repost all the shots you've seen before I thought it might be nice to concentrate on something we haven't seen a whole lot of in the movies promotion; that is, The Enchanted Forest. (And yes, it does appear that there is quite a Willow influence but I also agree that's not a bad thing - not at all.)

For those who want the links to all things SWATH here are a few to get you going:

• The main website
• The interactive trailer (click on the screen during play & you'll be guided to galleries, more clips & other tidbits - this is worth looking at)
• The interactive storybook App
• Costume designer, Colleen Atwood's inspiration Pinterest boards for: The Queen and The Dwarves 
• Great article on the costumes HERE and a beautiful slideshow detailing the costumes HERE
• The official Facebook page
• The official Twitter account
• Details on the soundtrack
• On-the-set videos
• MTV's sneak peek and exclusive Q&A videos from May 29th
• A SWATH "Pop-Up Gallery" event on Melrose Ave in Los Angeles through to June 3rd, featuring a mural painted on a 12ft mirror by internationally renowned artist MEAR (see larger version of image at right & making of video at the link) and Colleen Atwood's costumes designs (I dearly wish I could see this)
• iO9 has seven sneak-peek video clips of teeny green pixies and broken glass people, among other things for an extra injection of fantasy film fun (I mentioned the Willow influence, right? For fantasy fans it's most definitely a good thing.)

And here's a smattering of early reviews (beware of spoiler possibilities in these!):

• Roger Ebert's review (3.5 stars out of 4)
• Huffington Post's review
• The Hollywood Reporter's review

One thing all of these (and other less notorious review sources) seem to agree on is that it's beautiful to the point of, at times, visually stunning (and that includes the non-favorable reviews). I'm very curious to see what the public overall think.

Interview Magazine, on newstands June 5th, features Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron on the cover as well as a goth glam photoshoot and lengthy interview of them both. You can see the photos from the shoot HERE, though they're not at all fairy tale related. This excerpt from Ms. Stewart's part of the interview sheds a little light on why she was drawn to the character of Snow White:

"There's so much that Snow White has been deprived of in terms of having the proper time to really develop and hone who she is. She's put in jail at the beginning of her life, so she's a stunted person. She has a really idealized concept of what the world is, and how people should live, and how wonderful things all can be, and there is this debilitating isolation that she feels because she has been locked away in a little cell for seven years. And I can kind of relate to that. There is something . . . It's not the reason that I wanted to do the movie, but the fans and people who loved Twilight, they do put you on this sort of different plane where you're not real," explains Stewart on getting to live the role of Snow White.

In the meantime, first reports are proving mostly favorable and positive, even with regard to Kristen Stewart playing her role, which so many have been (justifiably IMO) concerned about. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how the symbolism is laid in through the costumes, sets, props and especially how they handle telling the familiar story. 

I detect a "Legend" moment!

I must admit, though, the one non-fairy tale aspect that has me curious: How are they going to make Kristen Stewart be "fairest" (ie obviously more so than Charlize Theron) without going down the 'Queen reverts to/shrivels to old crone' fallback? 

What aspects are you most curious about with regard to how they handled the fairy tale?

French poster for Snow White and the Huntsman

Note: I don't know why but the poster at the head of this blog post doesn't look professionally done to me. Very odd.