DAUGHERTY: Well, I wrote this script in 2003, when I was a humble college student, sitting in my boxers and writing in my dorm room. And I came up with the idea of writing an action-based Snow White, with this kind of Huntsman character as kind of a way in. So, that’s something I’m sort of proud of. Some people think that this is the era of revisionist fairy tales, and was this sort of a cynical grab? Well, the fact of the matter is, this is something that came from a very organic place. I think there’s something to be said for the fact that people in Hollywood didn’t want to make it back then, y’know, and that fairy tales somehow became a trend…but, for me, when you’re looking back at those old fairy tales, those stories are sort of about men saving women and the heroic prince saving the damsel in distress. And that didn’t seem like a particularly modern way of talking about things. So, my guiding principle became, “What if, instead of saving Snow White, the Huntsman teaches Snow White to save herself?”
Uh-huh.
DAUGHERTY: So, the reason I’m excited about it is, what had been a sort of frilly, fairy-tale world has been reinvented with a more subversive tone. There’s more action and adventure, it’s very Lord of The Rings-ish, and that’s something that’s been in there from the very first draft. People seemed kind of surprised by the teaser, but I was like, “Yeah, well, that’s what it is.” Y’know, I read the talkbacks and the comment boards, and there’s always some haters out there…but I think with this people see our intentions.
I think the teaser did a pretty decent job of showing that it was a different take on the story, for sure. When you were writing, did you have anyone in mind for the part of Snow White? If you were writing or back in 2003, surely you weren’t thinking of Kristen Stewart for the role back then, right?
DAUGHERTY: Not really. That was more in the era of Keira Knightley, but funnily enough, and I think I was telling this to Kristen, but…I wrote Snow White shortly after Panic Room came out. And when we were just hanging around the dorms with my buddies talking about the movie, I think I did say that Kristen Stewart would be good for the role. Obviously, she’d need to be a little older, but it would take a few years to get the movie made. I mean, that was her first big thing—Jodie Foster’s daughter in Panic Room.
I always forget she was in that.
DAUGHERTY: Well, y’know, she’s really young, and she’s got super-short hair. But it’s a great movie, and she had to carry quite a bit of…y’know, there’s only, like, four people in that movie. That’s a pretty big acting load for that age.
What did it feel like when you found out they actually wanted to make it after all these years?
DAUGHERTY: It was insane, surreal. I wrote it purely for fun—I mean, also because I wanted to be a screenwriter someday, but also for fun—but it wasn’t until years later that I got an agent, and even then it was sitting on a hard drive for a long time. But once it started coming together it was just surreal. When I wrote the scene about the Huntsman being sent to kill Snow White by the Queen, I was just sitting alone in my room, thinking up weird stuff. And then, this morning, seeing the trailer, I was like, “well, there’s that scene”. It’s really just surreal. And cool.
What do you think about the competing Snow White project? It seems like every few years two projects will spring up that are mirrors of one another: Deep Impact and Armageddon, or when they were talking about making two Alexander movies. Now it’s two Snow Whites. What do you think about that: creative synergy, or is someone getting ripped off?
DAUGHERTY: I don’t think people are getting ripped off. That’s just a function of the way Hollywood works behind the scenes. The truth is, there are probably eight more Snow White scripts floating around out there. And once one Snow White script got hot, other people started pulling out their Snow White scripts. I dunno, I think theirs is a little more kid-friendly, a little more cartoon-y and family-friendly? I think it’s called Mirror, Mirror now, so it doesn’t even have Snow White in the title. But it seems like the two movies are trying to distance themselves from one another, which seems like a smart move.
Yeah, I’d agree.
DAUGHERTY: When I visited the set for Snow White a couple weeks ago, it was like…y’know, it’s a big Lord of The Rings kinda thing, with axe-fighting and trolls and armies fighting. And I think the other’s more fairy-tale-ish and traditional.
Obviously that would put pressure on a production to get your movie out first, but in a practical sense, how much do you actually think about that stuff? Is it something hanging over the production every day, or something
Read more here:
Collider