Disney's 'The Order of the Seven'

[Walts Ghost]

Saoirse Ronan Will Lead Disney’s ‘The Order of the Seven,’ Formerly ‘Snow and the Seven’

For quite some time, Disney has been developing a new live-action version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in which the old story would get a fairly modern makeover. Michael Chabon wrote the initial version, but the film has been tweaked a few times over the past decade with directors as disparate as Yuen Wo-ping and Francis Lawrence attached at different times.

Then something happened. Or, really, two somethings happened, as Universal and Relativity Media beat Disney to the punch with Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror, Mirror, both of which are set to open this year. Two live-action Snow White re-tellings is goofy enough, and adding a third would strain audience interest like crazy.

So the Disney movie, which has had various titles over the years (most commonly Snow and the Seven) has been reworked again to eliminate all overt Snow White ties. What’s left is The Order of the Seven, a martial arts action film centered around a young heroine. Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones, Hanna) is in talks to take that lead role.

Variety offers a description of the new storyline in The Order of the Seven:

Those who’ve been keeping up with current trends in film financing and global sales will probably already have made a certain assumption based on that synopsis: there are roles in this film for Chinese actors, which will help the film sell in China.

In fact, says Variety, there are roles for Chinese, Russian and Japanese actors, and Disney wants well-known stars from those countries to help fill out the film’s “global team of heroes.” Here’s the synopsis we got last year, which might shed some light on what we can expect:

The film will ideally shoot this fall under the direction of Michael Gracey, a commercial director and visual effects supervisor who gets to make his feature debut here. Jayson Rothwell and Michael DeBruyn wrote the current draft.

Source

[Snicket]

I have loved everything she has done so hopefully this will not disappoint.


I'm glad Disney took the time to re-write this to distance itself from the Snow White story and do something unique.

All systems go.

[The Mad Kiwi]

Originally Posted by Snicket

I have loved everything she has done so hopefully this will not disappoint.

I'm glad Disney took the time to re-write this to distance itself from the Snow White story and do something unique.

Agreed on both points. I'm sure Ronan will do a great job as the lead, and I'm also glad the Snow White elements have been cut out. This project has been in development so long that I figured it died, especially with the this year's Snow White flicks, but it's nice to see that Disney's morphed this into something original. They've already got enough re-imaginings on their plate what with Oz: The Great and Powerful, Maleficent, and (the seemingly dormant so far) Cinderella.

[Lnds500]

Hopefully this has been halted indefinitely

Disney Halts Big-Budget 'Order of the Seven' Movie

Disney has put Order of the Seven, its planned Asia-set adventure movie, on hold indefinitely.

Saoirse Ronan was set to star and Michael Gracey was to make his directorial debut on the project, which has been in development at the studio for more than a decade and was, according to several sources, hoping to start production as soon as this summer in London.
The project, which began life as a Snow White retelling, was in the midst of finding an international cast to play a band of warriors tasked with protecting a young woman. And even as late as last week, the studio hired Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Iron Man) to polish the script.

But now sources at Disney say that all development work is being stopped. That's an abrupt about-face, even though the project was not officially greenlighted and the studio had not set a release date. Seven was in preproduction and expected to go before the cameras this year.
Sources say that in the aftermath of the mega-budgeted John Carter failing at the box office in March, Disney has been scrutinizing budgets on its tentpole movies. The budget on Seven, while undisclosed, was high enough to give the studio pause. Having a first-time director involved contributed to the unease.
Also adding to the uncertainty is the lack of a studio head. Rich Ross, who was overseeing development of Seven, resigned as studio chief in April after Disney announced it would suffer a $200 million write-down on John Carter. Disney CEO Bob Iger has not named a replacement for Ross.

Order of the Seven initially was set up by producer Andrew Gunn as a live-action kung fu take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but later evolved into a fantasy-action adventure tale. The story centered on a young woman in 19th century Hong Kong who escapes her wicked stepmother and takes refuge with seven men belonging to an ancient order dedicated to fighting demons and dragons.
This isn’t the first time Disney has put the brakes on a project over budget concerns. Last year the studio reined in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced The Lone Ranger, only to give it the greenlight once the cost of the adventure pic starring Johnny Depp was trimmed.
In fact, budgets are being scrutinized all over Hollywood. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. put its medieval adventure Arthur & Lancelot on hold, resurrected it and then put it on hold again. Universal last year shelved its anticipated adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, even with the involvement of Ron Howard. A ballooning budget was cited as the reason.

[EricJ]

Although the glut of Alice-wannabe Snow White projects (and box-office tanking of the first one out of the gate) may have contributed somewhat.
As for Lone Ranger's budget, think Disney has a LOT more to fear from that one, but that's their own darn fault.

[toddly6666]

too many Snow White movies it seems.

They should just call it Cinderella: The Rise of the 7 Morningstar Warriors.