2012's Second 'Snow White' Scheduled
It's shaping up to be Snow White versus Snow White in 2012. Relativity Media just announced a June 29, 2012 release date for their Untitled Snow White Movie. They also revealed that Julia Roberts has been cast as the evil queen in the Tarsem-directed adaptation, which is the second Snow White project officially announced for next year.

The movie, which is being produced by Ryan Kavanaugh, Tucker Tooley and Brett Ratner, appears to be a reimagining of the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale. It's plot is described as such: "After her evil stepmother kills her father and destroys the kingdom, Snow White bands together with a gang of seven quarrelsome dwarfs to reclaim what is rightly hers."

This release date is nearly six months ahead of Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman, which was scheduled for Dec. 21, 2012, over three months ago. That movie has already locked its three main leads, casting Viggo Mortensen as the Huntsman, Kristen Stewart as Snow White and Charlize Theron as the queen.

Jumping out ahead of Universal seems like an oddly contentious move for the upstart distributor Relativity. Out of Universal's 15 nationwide releases in 2010, 12 of them were co-financed by Relativity, who until recently was not distributing movies. That officially changed in December when Relativity released The Warrior's Way, which tanked with just $5.7 million. Its next project, Season of the Witch, fared a bit better, petering out at over $24 million. The remainder of its 2011 schedule features movies like Take Me Home Tonight, Limitless, Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer, the David R. Ellis Untitled Shark Thriller and Tarsem's Immortals.

It has been reported that Disney also has a Snow White project in the works, though it's unlikely that they'll continue development after these announcements. This rush to revive the Snow White character was apparently inspired by the $1-billion-plus worldwide success of Alice in Wonderland last year.

Update: In a follow-up announcement on Wednesday, Feb. 9, Relativity refered to the project as Snow White, indicating they may have already settled on an official title.

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