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| (Producer Palak Patel on far right) |
At the plate, bases full, bottom of the 9th, score tied and the pitcher has the nastiest slider you've ever seen...a pitch you've never hit before.
Three Snow White movies, one in production, the other two are not, the one in production releases its first official photo of its 'Snow White' to plenty of buzz and you haven't shot one second of film...what do you do?
You hit a grand slam home run. You knock it out of the park is what you do.
Patel boldly takes the pitch and hits a home run with his fellow Producer Joe Roth, first-time feature Director Rupert Sanders along with actors Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth and Sam Claflin.
SWATH came to Comic-Con with not one frame a film but only a concept and the audience ate it up. From all reports, SWATH not only hit a grand slam home run for the win, they threw water putting out the flames in 'The Hunger Games' poster positioning SWATH to potentially be the hot movie for next year.
One bold swing and they knocked it out. The boldness of it all. The audacity.
Deadline wrote: "Patel claimed that if the brothers Grimm were alive today, they'd be proud of this movie. Bold claim."
Not a surprising statement if one understood the origins of SWATH. SWATH was built on boldness. Patel explains the origins of SWATH in detail during a podcast interview with Script Magazine. In the interview, joined by SWATH script writer Evan Daugherty, you hear how the conceptual themes were developed as well as Patel's idea of what the 'Snow White' character should be.
Patel's passion for the project is heard throughout the interview and for fans it can be read through his thoughtful and informable tweets.
SWATH was built on bold moves: Patel wanting 'Snow White' to be written as a strong female who fights back; the weekend script selling blitz which led to a 6 studio bidding war while obtaining a guaranteed greenlight for filming; Roth visiting a hesitant Stewart on her Twilight set in an attempt to get her to play the role of 'Snow White', a character not known for her strength; Stewart signing to star in a Hollywood big budget non-indie film, her first; hiring a commercial director who's never done a major motion picture knowing it is going to be on the scale of a 'Lord of the Rings' just based on his presentation of what his vision of SWATH could be.
The audacity. The boldness.
Not one bad word was written about SWATH. The media was definitely gearing up to write something with their poisoned pens in hand. HitFix Gregory had already tweeted a scathing review of Francis Ford Coppola's next film; then later tweeted a photo and wrote, "Charlize Theron as the Queen. A little disco?"
However, no review of a photo could have been more scathing than the one Melissa Silverstein wrote about Lilly Collins' 'Snow White' on Indie Wire about perpetuating a stereotype: "I can’t help but be pissed that this is what gets rolled out at comic con—a picture of a doe eyed girl looking like she has been lobotomized."
What was SWATH up against?
The poisoned pens, however, were not to be found. The fun banter between the actors who barely knew each other was one of many positive statements coming from the media out of Comic-Con.
Here are some excerpts of what they wrote:
The Hollywood Reporter:
"Now it’s on, people!
The game of one-upmanship between Universal and Relativity over their competing Snow White movies ramped up at Comic-Con—and Universal now has the edge.
A day after Relativity released a first-look photo of Lilly Collins as Snow White in its untitled movie, Universal arrived in San Diego with a swath of character photos from Snow White and the Huntsman, including Kirsten Stewart holding a sword and shield as Snow White, Charlize Theron looking menacing as the dagger-wielding Evil Queen, Chris Hemsworth as the hunky Huntsman and Sam Claflin as a prince.
And while its movie doesn’t start production until August, Universal still made a big impression with a well-received presentation of test footage and director Rupert Sanders’ commercials to get audience excited.
All this compared to Relativity’s Comic-Con no-show for its Snow White, which has been in production in Montreal since June."
Collider:
As you may or may not know, there are roughly a bajillion Snow White projects currently in development. While some are further along than others, one of the most high profile adaptations is Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman. Directed by Rupert Sanders, the film stars Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, and Charlize Theron. Sanders and the actors were all present today for the film’s panel in Hall H, where we got our first look at what to expect from the film (hint: it’s epic, dark, and gritty).
...I was actually pretty impressed with what Sanders put together with such little time, and I think with an actual budget and the film’s stars this could end up being a fairly epic and dark fantasy film."
Variety:
Headline: "EVEN WITHOUT FOOTAGE, U MAKES A FOOTPRINT IN 'SNOW WHITE'"
"It was bold of Universal to bring "Snow White and the Huntsman" to Comic-Con, seeing as shooting hasn't yet started on the fantasy epic that will represent Kristen Stewart's biggest post-Twilight role.
What they brought instead was the cast, character images (embedded here) and an impressive array of reels by rookie director Rupert Sanders -- reels including the the mindbending "Call of Duty: Black Ops" commercial featuring a bunch of random stars like Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel, and a Halo 3 trailer that may have been the most heart-pounding sci-fi action sequence shown anywhere at Comic-Con this year."
So, Patel's first Comic-Con panel was a success beyond what he may have believed it would be. The buzz has begun.
The concept is great, the costumes look spectacular, the presentation went off without a hitch. We do not know what the script entails but you better believe with this group, nothing's being held back.
The audacity. The boldness. SWATH.
Snow White Trending on Twitter
PALAK PATEL'S TWEETS
Photos source: Palak Patel
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