We've been watching the development of this film via Twitter, Facebook and the official website for quite a few months now but things really seem to be ramping up for Prinroc Ltd's fairy tale film, and it's high time we shared its existence with fairy tale folk everywhere!
Here's the official synopsis from the website:
A great mystery shrouds the castle in the Brothers Grimm’s classic fairytale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Every night the king locks his twelve daughters securely in their chamber, but come morning, their shoes are in tatters and it’s clear they have been up to more than just sleeping in the night!
At his daughters’ refusal to explain, the king issues a proclamation inviting all the princes from realms far and near to come and unravel the princesses’ secret. The prize for solving the mystery of the tattered shoes? The winner may take the princess of his choice in marriage and half the kingdom. But every prince who comes to test his wits against the clever princesses fails in his quest and is put to death.
One day, a simple soldier appears on the castle steps and begs permission to take up the challenge and win the hand of a princess. The king allows it, but this soldier is different from all who have come before him in more than just rank. He has in his possession a magical cloak, the wise words of a good fairy, and quickly wins the heart of the fairest princess of them all. Will he succeed in uncovering the twelve sisters closely guarded secret where all others have failed?Intrigued? Take a look at their trailers - although they're at least a year old, you can see they've put a lot of work into the concept and it's only grown more impressive since then:
"The Twelve Dancing Princesses, will feature 12 young women in major roles," said Coady. "We are looking for diversity among our leads, representing young women of all ethnicities, shapes, and sizes," Coady continues, "This film will be a celebration of strong, supportive women on and off screen." In addition to featuring women in lead roles, producer, Ann Marie Lizzi, and executive producer, Michalina Scorzelli, add to the girl power behind the camera.
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| Rachel Resheff |
Broadway sweetheart, Rachel Resheff, joins the cast of live action fairy tale musical, THE TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES! With the recent box office success of Beauty and the Beast, and the trend of girl power fairy tale films breaking box office records, Prinroc Ltd's, THE TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES is a romantic musical romp with a feminist edge. (BW)With this impressive team bringing a wealth of filmmaking (and Hollywood) experience to the project between them, we know we're in for something special. (Take a look at the bios HERE - we guarantee you'll be impressed!)
We applaud the approach, the emphasis on diversity and in empowering women everywhere - both for the audience as represented via the story and film, as well as the team in front of, and behind, the camera.
As news - and the movie - develops, we'll let you know. This is definitely one film to keep tabs on!
I've been following this too, via Twitter. It looks interesting. I am wondering a bit if the focus on strong women will effect the treatment of the stories usual hero: the soldier. I know I shouldn't act like propping up one is tearing down the other, because it's not. It's just that I've noticed that princes in fairy tale movies haven't really had glowing appearances lately either (I mention that in my Charming interview). Also, if they want to depict the princesses' secret as a good thing, then revealing it like he does is kind of a jerk move.
ReplyDeleteBut the one thing that always gets me about this story is this: when did the title change? My copy of Grimm calls this story "The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces". But everyone calls it "The Twelve Dancing Princesses". When did this become common? Was it republished under that title or did people just come up with it?
Andrew Lang translated a French version for his inclusion in the color fairy books with that title, but both Russia and Romania have tales with titles that are almost the same too. Kids picture books from the 70's usually had Twelve Dancing Princesses as the title, probably as a holdover from the Lang collections, especially the original and most popular Blue Fairy Books, from which a lot of picture book collections seem to have been derived (my speculation). Germany also had a number of versions of this tale too though, apparently, and at least one of the titles was this, now popular, one (just not the one the Grimms chose to use).
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