At this point you can't have any big tentpole film without it being considered a potential franchise. It doesn't even matter whether the movie makes any money or not(Green Lantern). Even movies that don't seem as if they have a plot that stretches more than one movie are likely franchises. Case in point: Snow White and the Huntsman.
Joe Roth, producer of the film tells EW that Snow White and the Huntsman isn't just going to twist the Brothers Grimm fairy tale into an action pic, but also expand it to allow for future flicks...
Roth: “It’s meant to be the first in a series of films,” he said. “This story will end, but there will be questions remaining for these three characters.”
So...Snow White doesn't get her Prince at the end? Not that anybody should be surprised by that. It's clear that Rupert Sanders' film is only nominally based on the story we all know. In this version, the evil queen(Charlize Theron) hires a mercenary huntsman(Chris Hemsworth) to track down and kill Snow White(Kristen Stewart). Only when he finds her, he can't bring himself to do it.
Roth discusses in a bit more detail the revamped plot's premise...
Roth: “We retain the basic story in the same way we retain the basic story of Alice, a young girl meant to be the queen who is cast out,” Roth says. “The Huntsman is a mercenary, in the sense that he’s a guy who is very able in the woods, more able than most anyone. His job is to capture runaway girls, who are all fleeing the kingdom because of the queen. He’s a nondescript bounty hunter, as we first meet him. He’s not a nice guy, but not only that, he’s someone who has lost hope and lost faith. He has lost his wife, given up on everything.”
The Alice he's referring to is last year's Alice in Wonderland, which he also produced, so Roth knows a thing or two about fairy tale adaptations. And just as Mia Wasikowska's fiery personality powered that film, so is the same for Kristen Stewart. This Snow White is described as an innocent, but not exactly a damsel in distress. She's tough, and learns to fight back against the queen with the huntsman's aid.
I'm convinced by the end of this "series" that Snow White will somehow end up happily ever after with the huntsman rather than the prince(Sam Claflin). The huntsman character had been much older, with older actors vying for the gig. But with Hemsworth's signing, it has to add a sexual tension due to their closeness in age and relative hotness. With Hossein Amini(Drive) doing rewrites on the script, I expect he's going to be playing around with that same idea.
Snow White and Huntsman stars Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Ian McShane, Lily Cole, Toby Jones, Eddie Izzard, Bob Hoskins, Eddie Marsan, Stephen Graham, Ray Winstone, and Sam Spruell. It will hit theaters on June 1st 2012.
