A live-action take on Snow White has been in the works at Disney for years, and production was set to start up in a few months—that is, until the network pulled the plug. Why? Mostly because of John Carter's epic fail at the box office.
Dubbed Order of the Seven, the Asia-set period flick would have followed a group of warriors tasked with protecting a young woman. Actress Saoirse Ronan (Hanna, The Lovely Bones) was already lined up to star, with Michael Gracey directing.
The film was in preproduction and was set to start filming by the end of the year. That is, until John Carter made Disney even more gun shy about risky projects.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney started closely re-evaluating a lot of their bigger-budget films in development at about the same time shoulda-been-blockbusterJohn Carter brought in a severely underwhelming $30 million on opening weekend, costing the company $200 million in losses.
Order of the Seven was described as a 19th-century fantasy-action adventure tale, centered on a young woman in Hong Kong who runs away from her stepmother and takes refuge with "seven men belonging to an ancient order dedicated to fighting demons and dragons."
Sound pretty awesome. Awesome, and risky.
Obviously, it's sad to see the studio reining in on creativity, but after taking a bath on their last big gamble, it's hard to blame them from a business sense.
Sound off: Did Disney make the right call? LINK
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
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