Disney is about to remake one of its most beloved animated features, the 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - as a martial arts movie set and shot in China.
The Grimm brothers' fairytale will get the full-on kung fu treatment in the new version, which is tentatively titled Snow and the Seven. The screenplay, by Michael Chabon (Spider-Man 2), is set in a British concession of colonial China in the 1880s and it turns the seven dwarves into Shaolin monks. The director is Yuen Woo-ping, the imaginative action choreographer for the Matrix trilogy, the Kill Bills, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kung Fu Hustle.
Two out at film board
In a surprise decision, the Irish Film Board has abolished two senior positions. As a result, Brendan McCarthy, head of production and development, and Moira Horgan, head of marketing, will not have their contracts renewed this year. The news comes as the board assesses applications for the vacant post of chief executive, which was advertised last month. The new CEO will also assume responsibility for production and development.
"The purpose of this change is to have a flatter structure with more resources available for dealing directly with clients," said board chairman James Morris. "This change will also allow us to give greater definition and back-up to our efforts to attract inward production in what is an increasingly competitive international market."
The film board meets the film industry in what promises to be a lively open forum at Galway Film Fleadh tomorrow morning.
Hanks & co crack Code
Shooting is now underway in Paris on Ron Howard's movie based on Dan Brown's best-selling The Da Vinci Code. The first scenes were shot at the Ritz hotel where the principal character, Harvard symbology expert Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks) is woken by a phone call from the French police. On the following evening the cast and crew moved to the Louvre, where they are shooting by night and on days when it is closed.
The film, which has a $100 million budget, also stars Audrey Tautou as cryptologist Sophie Neveu, Jean Reno as Captain Bezu Fache, Ian McKellan as Sir Leigh Teabing, Alfred Molina as Bishop Aringarosa, and Paul Bettany as Silas the monk. The shoot is scheduled to continue until October, when it wraps in England. The international release date is already set for May 17th, 2006.
Movie school summer
The education department of Dublin's Irish Film Institute is organising Reel Magic, a summer film school course for children who will experience the process of making a short film from script to screen. The first course, aimed at the 9 to 12 age group, will be held from July 18th-22nd, followed by a course for 13 to 15-year-olds from July 25th-29th.
The course fee is €220 (or €245 including daily lunch). For information, go to www.irishfilm.ie
Gay marriage is now a farce
Director Alexander Payne and his regular screenwriting collaborator Jim Taylor, who won an Oscar this year for Sideways, are working on a script dealing with gay marriage. The director is David Dobkin, whose new film, The Wedding Crashers, starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, opens here next Thursday. Payne and Taylor's screenplay will deal with two Philadelphia firemen who pretend they're gay to get insurance benefits, but then have to keep up the charade.
"It's a Tootsie-type movie," says Dobkin. "It could be an important film if we don't totally screw it up. But I've got two of the best writers around doing the work. You can't make a joke out of the subject matter. You have to be very careful, because it is a topic and it is an issue that, if you do it right, you can open some people's minds."
The title of the movie is I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
