Walt Disney studio chiefs might be feeling their own brand of flop sweat, as one indicator after another piles up that that company’s $300 million bet on a live-action “Snow White” is going down faster than the Titanic if the iceberg had been armed with torpedoes and antiship missiles.
The Mouse House “won’t be rolling out a robust red carpet like it usually does” for a big-budget premiere next week, Variety reported Tuesday. Instead of a parade of movie stars and celebrities vying for attention on the red carpet and all the attendant big media names, the “Snow White” premiere will have its coverage “limited to photographers and a house crew.”
Stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot will attend the March 15 pre-party and screening at the El Capitan Theatre, but “the scaled-back plans come amid controversies surrounding the Marc Webb-directed film.”
I’ve covered the remake’s problems in several columns over the last two years. There were the ridiculous non-dwarves (“Snow White, One Dwarf, and Six Painfully Diverse Magical Creatures“) who were later replaced at great expense with CGI dwarves just back from the Uncanny Valley. And the $100 million worth of reshoots the studio required when the Woke BS leaked (and Zegler was forced to do a brief apology tour). Finally, there was a one-year delay in getting the hot mess into theaters (see the preceding items).
After all that, “Snow White” won’t even enjoy a typical launch.
The industry rags provide what cover they can for Disney’s multimillion-dollar embarrassment.
“Why Is Disney Burying Snow White?” Gizmodo asked with mock ignorance. “Could Disney possibly be hiding to play it safe amid the current political climate in the U.S., with conservatives easily alarmed by anything perceived to be too ‘woke’?”
The Hollywood Reporter went with this tack: “While the event won’t be scaled back, as some headlines claimed, the studio isn’t allowing regular red carpet press to attend in order to prevent Zegler and Gal Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen, from answering questions on the spot.”
Not inviting the media to attend is the very definition of “scaled back.”
Give credit to THR, however, for including this juicy tidbit from an exhibition source: “They’ve been going through the motions on ‘Snow White,’ all but saying, ‘We need to get this thing over with.'”
The first problem is that Disney hired a big-mouthed wokester to play Snow White and then failed to keep her on a publicity leash. Say what you will about the long-dead Hollywood studio system, but they knew how to groom actors for stardom. You never heard Cary Grant or Katharine Hepburn bad-mouthing beloved cultural icons during the production or publicity of a picture they were making.
And Another Thing: For a spot-on humorous take on the old studio system, check out the Coen Brothers’ “Hail, Caesar!” from 2016. It’s a delight watching Josh Brolin as a fixer desperately trying to keep the studio’s troublesome actors (and their non-mainstream proclivities) out of the press.
Then there’s the part of “Snow White” where we’re supposed to believe that Gal Gadot has anything to be jealous of about Zegler.
The irony is that having spent perhaps a third of a billion dollars producing this stinker, the company now hopes to save a few bucks by scaling back the red carpet event that usually accompanies the premiere of a tentpole motion picture.
I’m kidding, of course. Disney knows that some last-minute cost-cutting won’t make any difference to the bottom line. It isn’t trying to save money — it’s trying to save face.
Good luck with that, Disney, because the only thing that might be worse than the publicity surrounding the production and premiere of “Snow White” is the picture itself.
“Snow White” opens nationally on May 21.
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