Snow White and the Huntsman

Has anyone seen this yet?

One of my favorite stories... with an unexpected cast and some serious tweaking.

So what I read is that instead of the traditional story: huntsman is sent out into the woods with Snow White to kill her and return with her tongue. He feels bad about killing the little girl so he sends her off to fend for herself in the woods, kills a deer and returns to the Queen with the deer tongue. She meets the 7 dwarves; is laced up too tight, eats the poisoned apple, and stabbed with a poisoned comb; and Prince Charming saves her life. In this new story, its a bit different. The Huntsman is sent into the woods to capture Snow White, kill her, cut out her heart, and return to the Queen, as her magic mirror not only promised that she would be the fairest in the land by Snow White's death, but also that she would live forever. (I don't remember that in the original version). He feels bad for the young woman so he takes her under his wing and trains her. She becomes a soldier who then leads a rebellion to take the Queen down. Also, this apparently has 8 dwarves. No idea why.

The cast is somewhat surprising to me. As you can see from the video, Charlize Theron plays Queen Ravenna. While she is certainly beautiful, the evil Queen has always been an older woman to me... not quite senior citizen, but not middle aged anymore either. Charlize looks about 23 if you don't look real close so she seems out of place for me. But she seems to play the evil part well by the above clip. Snow White is played by Kristen Stewart. This is the chick from Twilight. I hated the movies, mostly because I think Robert Pattinson looks, speaks, and acts like a tool. But Kristen Stewart's acting hasn't been the greatest either... granted neither of them had amazing material to work with anyways. But that is a whole 'nother rant. Maybe I'll post about it another time... I do like the books. Anyways, instead of the simpering layabout that we have come to know Kristen as Bella is, as Snow White, she looks pretty bad ass. She rides horses, runs through woods, and uses a sword (and possibly a shield?). They didn't show her speaking though so that makes me nervous. Yummy actor Chris Hemsworth (Thor and The Avengers) is Huntsman, in what appears to be a mentor role. With the way it is described, he takes Snow White under his wing... so my dirty mind naturally assumes "and into his bed" should follow. But, perhaps not. Sam Claflin plays Prince William who has been in love with Snow White since forever. So a love triangle? Maybe. I can't imaging Stewart being down for another movie where she has a love triangle happening. I could be wrong though.

The dwarfs, oddly renamed from the original Doc, Sleepy, Dopey, Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, and Bashful, have a spectacular cast. We have Ian McShane (Blackbeard from Pirates of the Caribbean) as Caesar, Stephen Graham (Fulvio from Inkheart) as Nero, Bob Hoskins (Eddie Valiant from Who Framed Roger Rabit) as Constantine, Toby Jones (Doby from the Harry Potter series) as Cladius, Eddie Marsan (Inspector Lestrade in Sherlock Holmes) as Hadrian, Eddie Izzard  (c'mon It is Eddie Freaking Izzard!) as Tiberius, Ray Winstone (Ares in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief) as Trajan, and Nick Frost (Ed from Shaun of the Dead) as Gus. I have no idea why the dwarfs are renamed as old world conquerors but I suppose it has to do with the War theme in this movie. I'm stoked by Eddie Izzard naturally.

So what do you think? Going to be a good addition to the Snow White stories? Going to suck the life from the story? Too drastically different from the original to work? So different that its not going to be recognized as a Snow White version? I'm on the fence. I'll let my judgement wait until it comes out in June.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Friday Five: Holiday Memories

I figured today's and the 30th's Friday Five could be about memories. Today's is my favorite Holiday Memories over the years. Next week, I'll list my favorite memories for 2011. :)

1. I've mentioned this before but my favorite holiday memory is the homemade Christmas ornaments my grandmother made over the years. We put them on the tree this year and I boohooed for a good bit after.
2. In 2005, I spent New Years with  my parents, my brother, two of my brother's friends, and a friend of mine. None of us thought to pick up alcohol. It was my first New Years after I turned 21. A neighbor gave us corn whiskey that resulted in a 6 hour tape of us singing a karaoke version of Cheeseburger In Paradise and Fins over and over again. Never again but it was hilarious.
3. When I was 16, I rang in the New Year with girlfriends from high school. I was introduced to the comedy of Eddie Izzard that night and an obsession was born. I still love the guy.
4. I may have the year wrong, but we had a blizzard in 1993 where the snow drifts ended up higher than I was tall. I was around 9 then so it may have been 4 foot drifts, but still. I remember making an igloo, several dozen snowmen, and sledding in the neighbor's field.
5. Christmas 2008 is my favorite for one simple reason. I graduated from college in December 2008 and Christmas was my first holiday with a degree. It was awesome knowing I didn't have to go back in January, that I could focus on work finally.

I could come up with a dozen more favorite memories but I have to help wrap presents tonight so I'll leave it here. What is your favorite memory during the holidays? Tell me in the comments below!

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Monday Machination: The Death of Thomas H. Ince

To kick off the first Monday Machination, I am writing about the inspiration for this daily post.

On November 15, 1924, silent film maker and producer Thomas H. Ince set sail with business magnate William Randolph Hurst, actor Charlie Chaplin, actresses Marion Davies and Margaret Livingston, and writer Louella Parsons and many others. Sometime on the yacht, Ince developed an issue that required his removal from the yacht and return to shore. Less than 48 hours later, he died. Why? How? Those reports are muddled.