The primary revealed model of “Snow White” dropped in 1812, as authored by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. The Grimm Brothers re-wrote the story in 1854, nonetheless, and that is the model that almost all audiences know. The story facilities on a useless, evil queen with a magic mirror that offers her day by day affirmations. When she asks if she is the fairest (at a time when having pale pores and skin was an indication of magnificence), the mirror would reply that she was. The queen’s depraved idyll is then interrupted by the start of a younger maiden named Snow White for her equity. To retain her unofficial title of Fairest within the Land, the queen goals to have Snow White murdered. Her schemes concerned servants, spells, and a house populated by seven miners.
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“Snow White” has been tailored for different mediums quite a few instances since then. There are poems, ballets, operas, comedian books, video video games, and plenty of, many movie variations of the fairy story. Essentially the most well-known film adaptation, after all, is the animated one launched by Disney again in 1937. Certainly, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the primary animated function that Disney produced, inaugurating one of the highly effective animation studios on this planet.
However, golly, there are quite a lot of “Snow White” films. There was a interval motion flick referred to as “Snow White and the Huntsman” launched in 2012, which was the identical yr that the whimsical retelling “Mirror Mirror” got here out. There was additionally 2007’s “Sydney White,” a then modern-day re-imagining starring Amanda Bynes. In truth, a decade earlier than that, there was even a horror-centric tackle the story made within the type of 1997’s “Snow White: A Story of Terror” (starring Sigourney Weaver because the evil queen). That is all on high of the a number of “Snow White” movies launched manner again within the 1900s and 1910s. It is a dependable supply of inspiration.
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It appears that evidently, in 1969, Common was aiming to make its personal up to date model of “Snow White,” set within the then-present inside a median metropolis house. Rather more surprisingly, a classic article by The New York Occasions reveals {that a} 24-year-old Steven Spielberg was approached to direct it.
Steven Spielberg’s first film may have been a modernized Snow White
It is price noting that in 1969, the 23-year-old Steven Spielberg had solely directed just a few shorts and a single newbie function titled “Firelight,” which he shot when he was simply 17. In ’69, Spielberg’s best-known would’ve been “Amblin’,” the quick that will finally give his manufacturing firm its title. He had additionally helmed an episode of the then-new “Evening Gallery,” however was nonetheless two years away from directing 1971’s “Duel,” his first skilled function movie. (Three years later, he was off and operating with “The Sugarland Specific.”)
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It appears, although, that Common needed the younger Spielberg to direct a “Snow White” film based mostly on the power of “Amblin'” alone. In accordance with the outdated New York Occasions article, Common’s “Snow White” was to be a couple of trendy Snow White who “shares her San Francisco house with seven younger males whereas ready for her prince to indicate up.” This does not sound terribly completely different from “Sydney White.” On condition that it was being developed in 1969, although, it possible would have been much more ribald and “swinging.”
The venture, nonetheless, fell aside in Common’s palms. Spielberg did not do any severe work on “Snow White” earlier than transferring on to make higher films for Common. (“Duel,” “The Sugarland Specific,” and just a little shark flick Spielberg directed referred to as “Jaws” had been all put out by the studio within the decade that adopted.)
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Spielberg, nonetheless, wasn’t performed dabbling in “Snow White.” A long time later, director Marc Webb solid Rachel Zegler in his 2025 “Snow White” film after Spielberg gave the actor what she described as “a very glowing advice” throughout an look on “Jimmy Kimmel Reside!” (with Spielberg having beforehand labored with Zegler on his glorious “West Facet Story” adaptation). Zegler is a good performer and a gifted singer, so one imagines Webb most likely did not want a lot in the best way of convincing to rent her.
It might’ve taken 56 years, however it appears Spielberg finally discovered a method to put his personal spin on “Snow White.” Properly, sorta.
