“The Girl on the Train” screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson may pen Disney’s live-action “Snow White.” Wilson is in negotiations to write the script for the film, “which will expand upon the story and music from the beloved animated classic,” The Hollywood Reporter writes.
Disney’s original 1937 film was based on the Brothers Grimm fairytale. “Snow White” marked Disney’s first animated feature, and won an honorary Oscar at the 11th Academy Awards.
The upcoming live-action film will feature new songs written by “La La Land” lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
Kristen Stewart took on the role of Snow White in 2012’s “Snow White and the Huntsman,” and Lily Collins portrayed her that same year in “Mirror Mirror.” Ginnifer Goodwin plays a version of the character on ABC’s “Once Upon a Time.” No word on who will play the iconic princess in Disney’s live-action version of the story.
Emma Watson will bring Belle to life in Disney’s highly anticipated live-action take on “Beauty and the Beast,” hitting theaters March 17. “Mulan” is also being re-imagined as a live-action Disney film, set to debut in 2018, but the titular role hasn’t been cast yet. Disney is also developing a live-action feature based on Snow White’s sister, Rose Red, a character that appeared in “Grimms’ Fairy Tales.” In the Grimms’ tales, Rose and Snow White are not connected.
“Snow White” would mark a real shift from Wilson’s latest release, an adaptation of Paula Hawkin’s bestselling novel “The Girl on the Train,” starring Emily Blunt as an lonely, depressed alcoholic woman struggling to remember a crime she witnessed. The thriller is decidedly more bleak than the tale of Snow White.
Fans of Wilson’s grittier work also have something to look forward to: back in August it was revealed that she’s been tapped to adapt “Eileen,” Ottessa Moshfegh’s award-winning debut novel, for Fox Searchlight and producer Scott Rudin. The story takes place in the early ’60s outside of Boston, where Eileen is working as a secretary at a boy’s prison as she dreams of making a life in the big city. Eileen becomes involved in “a very strange crime” that, according to the book’s description, “surpasses her wildest imaginings.”
Wilson’s credits include “Secretary,” “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus,” and “Vinyl.”
We’re hopeful that Disney and Wilson will give the “Snow White” story a much-needed update. Let’s not have a passive Snow White who needs to be saved by a prince. “Frozen” and other recent Disney offerings have marked a major step forward for their female characters, and it’d be a shame to revisit this classic from the past without giving it a female-friendly makeover.
