Like two drunken frat boys engaged in a pissing match for bragging rights, Universal and Relativity have been fighting it out over their competing Snow White movies both set to hit next year. In one corner, we have “Snow White and the Huntsman” with Chris Hemsworth as the huntsman, Charlize Theron set to play the evil queen, Kristen Stewart as Snow White, and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” star Sam Clafin as the prince. In the other corner, we have Tarsem‘s untitled Snow White movie with Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer, Lily Collins, Nathan Lane and Robert Emms. Originally, Tarsem’s film was set to be released on June 29, 2012, with Universal’s picture coming arriving in December. But last week, Universal announced they were moving their film all the way up to June 1st and switching out their film with Judd Apatow’s forthcoming “Knocked Up” spin off, which they bumped to the end of the year. But it looks like Relativity now has the last laugh.
The studio has announced that their still untitled film, set to be directed by Tarsem, will arrive in less than ten months on March 16, 2012. The move is massive, pushing the film ahead by three months and now putting the production under tremendous time constraints (if you thought “X-Men: First Class” was rushed, you ain’t seen nothing yet). And to put a bit more salt in the wound, Relativity has also announced that they’ll be releasing “Safe Haven,” an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, right opposite “Snow White And The Huntsman” on June 1st. That’s gotta hurt.
We’re not quite sure what Universal will do now. They can’t really move their film ahead any further unless they want to crank it out in nine months and regardless, at least two of their stars are tied up with another film at the moment (Charlize Theron is shooting “Prometheus” and Chris Hemsworth is filming “The Avengers“). Looks like they lose this round and walk away with some serious egg on their faces. As for Relativity, March 16th is no easy weekend. They will be squaring off against “21 Jump Street” with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as well as the Mark Wahlberg thriller “Contraband.”
So it looks like the saga of which Snow White film will come first has been resolved. Shooting on the Tarsem film will gear up next month. And oh yeah, Phillip Noyce‘s Navy Seal/World War III thriller “Hunter Killer” has also been set for December 21, 2012 and it’s another spit in the eye to Universal who have Judd Apatow‘s next film — rumored to be titled “This Is Forty” — set for the same weekend.