Snow White and the Huntsman - Chick Flick in disguise?

[Juno Styles]

If it makes even a dollar over what they spent -- there will always be a sequel....smdh.

[YakMan]

Originally Posted by SBScript

He'll probably get paid 1.5m, he can cry into his swimming pool full of money.

Do you have access to his contract rider or is this pure speculation?

And since we're speculating... is it okay for the rookie to get pushed out of the room for a known quantity David Koepp to cash in on a $3 million (or MORE???) and gross receipt steps deal payday for the next script??? How does that make $1.5 look? Naw, people are alright with a lesser comparative compensation.

...and um, are you as manager okay with losing out to D.K.'s team on 10% of that and the years you put into developing this guy and his work??? Yeah, Evan's got the other projects but...do they have the greenlit impetus of this project and potential ensuing income stream???

C'mon, man, you're the good guy...on the writer's side here, right???

[Geoff Alexander]

Originally Posted by YakMan

Do you have access to his contract rider or is this pure speculation?

And since we're speculating... is it okay for the rookie to get pushed out of the room for a known quantity David Koepp to cash in on a $3 million (or MORE???) and gross receipt steps deal payday for the next script??? How does that make $1.5 look? Naw, people are alright with a lesser comparative compensation.

...and um, are you as manager okay with losing out to D.K.'s team on 10% of that and the years you put into developing this guy and his work??? Yeah, Evan's got the other projects but...do they have the greenlit impetus of this project and potential ensuing income stream???

C'mon, man, you're the good guy...on the writer's side here, right???

My point is that he is probably just fine. In fact, he's probably better than fine, he has launched a career in a spectacular fashion. As his manager, I would be concerned with the big picture, what's next for him, how to make the most of the momentum which he has, not about what the studio didn't give him. You are always going to be dealing with being rewritten, having things taken away, etc., etc., if your rep or you get hung up on that then you're not thinking about the future.

[wcmartell]

Originally Posted by YakMan

Yeah, and Evan Daugherty doesn't even get a room pitch for the sequel...??? Then gets thrown under the bus by Universal hiring David Koepp.

I'd look at it differently - the job it took Daugherty to do... takes David Koepp to do. That puts Daugherty *above* Koepp (or at least equal to him) - and that makes him a superstar.

- Bill

[christopher jon]

Yeah, and Evan Daugherty doesn't even get a room pitch for the sequel...??? Then gets thrown under the bus by Universal hiring David Koepp. Aw'wells - S.S.D.D. ...

What's the big deal?

Universal bought the screenplay because Joe Roth liked the concept.

Screenplays are bought on strength of concept all the time. Experienced writers are then brought in to polish them up. It's not like this is something new.

I guess something to add to unrealistic contract points, first shot at writing the sequel. A studio might actually fall for that one.

[YakMan]

Originally Posted by christopher jon

What's the big deal?

Universal bought the screenplay because Joe Roth liked the concept.

Screenplays are bought on strength of concept all the time. Experienced writers are then brought in to polish them up. It's not like this is something new.

I guess something to add to unrealistic contract points, first shot at writing the sequel. A studio might actually fall for that one.

No worries ... I wholly agree ... I guess mine was an extended lamentation for the care & feeding that he and his handlers went through to get this set up and then not even to be allowed the courtesy of presenting a ten-pager treatment or what have you for the follow-up.

I know...I know...you're absolutely right -- happuns all zee time! And having read these damn contracts -- why the Ent. Lawyer wouldn't have that in there in a separate clause, I don't know. Course...maybe the lawyer DID ... and as the esteemed SBS offered ... Evan got his $1.5M pool to cry in when he was shown the door. ..."If said property generates a sequel -- the studio may herewith free itself of all obligations to the named above in lieu of $1,500,000.00." Forget it Evan...it's Hollywoodtown.

[Pipe]

God damn this movie was a piece of crap rolled in a rotting rat corpse.

Kristen Stewart needs to go away. A Sears mannequinn shows more emotion, can act better, and has more chemistry with the people around it. "Kristen, stand over there and look stunned and/or stupid." I doubt that was the direction she got.

The story was a meandering mess. It was just.. a mess. Stuff was just happening just for the sake of happening. It was stupid.

Charlize was the only bright spot. And I'm not a huge fan of hers. But she can act.

[Rantanplan]

I agree, I thought this was mostly pretty awful. Steward was a terrible casting choice (she does not have the right type of innocent / kind-hearted beauty required for Snow White), the action was impressive for being so utterly and remarkably unimpressive, the pacing / direction / editing was way off at times (I love how she hasn't seen her beau since childhood, and then there he is all of a sudden, and there's not even a reaction shot), and some of the visuals literally made me laugh-- after AVATAR and LORD OF THE RINGS (Rivendell) we're supposed to be impressed by little floating mushrooms, some lame blue light shooting across the screen, or horrible mini-creatures that crawl out of plants? Another laugh out loud moment for me was her Rousing Pre-Battle Speech. I doubt it's going to be joining the pantheon of great battle oratory anytime soon. I do think Stewart has talent but she was just the wrong choice here.

But Theron was great and some of the stylized visuals in her scenes were very nicely done. And the dwarfs did a good job as well.

Other than that, for all the buzz this script and film garnered, I sure was disappointed. Watching the film I felt that it just stole a bunch of moments and ideas from other far superior films and tried to patch it all together.

So glad it's getting a sequel!!

[tuukka]

It's pretty good. The visuals are cool and the actors are good. The story has an interesting villain and a strong enough basic conflict to carry the movie, but it's not particularly involving.

It's pretty easy to point of the the story flaws. When the main villain is not around - And she's mostly absent during the 2nd act - The heroes don't really have much to do. They run and hide without any actual purpose or destination. They argue a little bit at first, but decide to work together right away. A village burns but we didn't really know anyone from there anyway. Then the heroes randomly meet some other characters, and make friends with them immediately. They end up in a pretty forest by chance, and something important and mystical happens. The villain makes a short appearance and manages to create a dramatic moment. Then the heroes end up in a town and easily convince everyone to attack the bad guys. Then they attack the bad guys without much of a plan, and they kind of seem to be more powerful than the bad guys anyway.

So, in other words: Not enough conflict. It's all way too easy. And there are no clear goals. Stuff just happens.

But it looks pretty and atmospheric. The actors are good, and the characters are fairly likable, if unmemorable. The villain is interesting and in some ways the most emotionally involving character in the story. We actually see her suffer more than Snow White.

[nmstevens]

Originally Posted by figment

I haven't seen it and probably won't. But I remember being new to these boards -- lurking mostly -- and reading the breathless and excited posts about how this writer went to auction. How it was great for the industry.

And then... no one likes it.

And other writers rewrite the original writer -- maybe making things way more muddled than they had to be (?)

I wonder if it wouldn't be better to sell a spec that's much smaller, and you get to stay on it as the writer. Seems like the more excitement, the more chatter, the more people involved, the bigger chance a movie will flop (at least quality-of-story-wise if not box office).

I'll take a mid budget spec sale where I get to stay on the project and have people be pleasantly surprised -- hey, it's good! Hey, it made some money!-- than this any day. Is that just me?*

* I fully admit I'd rather have the movie be "good" than just do box-office, which of course puts me at odds with 99.9% of everyone else in the business. Can't shake it though.-

What in the world makes you think that if the movie is smaller or mid-budget that they aren't just as likely to replace the writer, or do it more than once, -- or that the movie will go through development hell, or that all of those things you think happen with big budget movies don't or won't happen with mid-budget or small budget movies?

Or, for that matter, that that development process, involving multiple writers, doesn't also produce, at every level, really good movies? Or that movies just written (or written and directed) by one person with one cohesive vision won't end up with a cohesive vision that sucks?

I've seen both of these things happen -- I've seen movies go into production that desperately needed to be rewritten and other movies that should have been left alone that were rewritten to death -- and also movies that got the work that they needed and turned out really well -- because they were appropriately rewritten, including bringing in new writers when the original writer failed to deliver on the project.

NMS