Travicity
02-08-2011, 09:47 PM
Deadline revealed late last year that Julia Roberts was being courted by Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media to play the Evil Queen in the Tarsem Singh-directed The Brothers Grimm: Snow White. I’m told that the deal will close within two hours, with the talks basically down to “whether Julia gets a Town Car or an SUV.”
Committing to Roberts means that neither Relativity Media or Universal Pictures is blinking on the race to mount rival Snow White pictures for 2012 release. Universal has set a December 21, 2012 release date for the Rupert Sanders-directed Snow White and the Huntsman, which has come together strongly with Kristen Stewart and Viggo Mortensen playing the title characters, and Charlize Theron playing the Evil Queen. Usually, rival picture races end when one project either lands a big star or makes it into production first. That's happened on such films as the Oliver Stone-directed Alexander, which ended the Alexander the Great film Baz Luhrmann was prepping with Leonardo DiCaprio.
Relativity Media might get into production before Universal's planned summer start, with pre-production underway and shooting to begin possibly as soon as next month, insiders said. Landing Roberts is also a big play for Kavanaugh, who stepped into The Fighter when many of the elements were in place. Here, he got a project from scratch and is taking his biggest shot with an internationally bankable superstar. It comes at a time when The Fighter has a puncher’s chance for Best Picture, and as Kavanaugh mounts tent pole-size movies like the Henry Cavill-starrer Immortals and the Biblical tale Goliath. All this seems to be leading Relativity Media to an inevitable IPO.
Committing to Roberts means that neither Relativity Media or Universal Pictures is blinking on the race to mount rival Snow White pictures for 2012 release. Universal has set a December 21, 2012 release date for the Rupert Sanders-directed Snow White and the Huntsman, which has come together strongly with Kristen Stewart and Viggo Mortensen playing the title characters, and Charlize Theron playing the Evil Queen. Usually, rival picture races end when one project either lands a big star or makes it into production first. That's happened on such films as the Oliver Stone-directed Alexander, which ended the Alexander the Great film Baz Luhrmann was prepping with Leonardo DiCaprio.
Relativity Media might get into production before Universal's planned summer start, with pre-production underway and shooting to begin possibly as soon as next month, insiders said. Landing Roberts is also a big play for Kavanaugh, who stepped into The Fighter when many of the elements were in place. Here, he got a project from scratch and is taking his biggest shot with an internationally bankable superstar. It comes at a time when The Fighter has a puncher’s chance for Best Picture, and as Kavanaugh mounts tent pole-size movies like the Henry Cavill-starrer Immortals and the Biblical tale Goliath. All this seems to be leading Relativity Media to an inevitable IPO.