Oscar Outlook 2012: Snow White and the Huntsman

Who is Rupert Sanders? you might ask.  I certainly did.  His IMDb filmography consists of precisely one credit: director of Snow White and the Huntsman.  Well, I googled him and found his cryptically-designed website and watched some of his commercials and short films.  He was behind the 1:30 falling angels spot for Axe body spray.  He definitely has a taste for the more fantastical and macabre.  Aesthetically, this film should be out-of-sight, with echos of David Fincher.  Hopefully, Evan Daugherty's (the upcoming Killing Season) script is strong (it was doctored by The Blind Side's John Lee Hancock and Drive's Hossein Amini) and Sanders will have the narrative ability to hold the story together.  His short films are disturbing,   Remember that clip of Charlize Theron bathing in a milk-like substance?  Here is its black, oily antecedent.  If Huntsman is successful, expect him to collaborate with Trent Reznor in the near future.  Oops, wait, he already has.  You can read my review of his longest short to date here.

Fairy tales have become all the rage in TV and film.  And while the Julia Robert's Mirror Mirror clearly has come and gone and sounded like a boner to begin with, the competing Snow White and the Huntsman has cultivated a much more substantial buzz this whole time.  (Although, I still do wonder about those posters that went up at Hollywood & Highland way back in December.)  Perhaps having Joe Roth on board may have something to do with it.  This will be seasoned producer first foray into fairy tale land since Alice in Wonderland.  He's also producing Oz: The Great and Powerful and Maleficent.  Also on board is Sarah Bradshaw, Sam Mercer (several M. Night Shymalan films) and Palak Patel.

Editing done by Neil Smith and Conrad Buff IV, who has worked with James Cameron several times resulting in a nomination for Terminator 2 and winning for Titanic.  Camera work was by Australian Greig Fraser whose labors will also be seen in this year's Killing Them Softly and Zero Dark Thirty.  The production designer is Dominic Watkins and costume designer is the esteemed Colleen Atwood whose wears will be on display in the upcoming Dark Shadows.  The highly decorated James Newton Howard has never won an Oscar, but his prolific work can be heard in this year's The Hunger Games, Darling Companion, and The Bourne Legacy.

Huntsman filmed the last three months of 2011 in Wales, but mostly Surrey and Beckinghamshire, England.  It releases in the US June 1 care of Universal Pictures.

Rupert Sanders' work includes:
Black Hole
Book of Eli-Passenger
How to Destroy Angels "The Space in Between"
D-Minus

Also on the Radar:

Anna Karenina     Argo     Beasts of the Southern Wild     The Bourne Legacy     The Dark Knight Rises     Dark Shadows     Django Unchained     Gangster Squad     Great Expectations     The Great Gatsby     The Hobbit     Hope Springs     The Hunger Games     Hyde Park on the Hudson     Lawless     Lincoln     Lola Versus     Lovelace     Low Life     Magic Mike     The Master     Les Misérables     Life of Pi     Moonrise Kingdom     People Like Us     Prometheus     To Rome with Love     Ruby Sparks     Savages     Seeking a Friend for the End of the World     The Silver Linings Playbook     Smashed     The Surrogate     Trouble with the Curve     Won't Back Down 


The Avengers     The Amazing Spider-Man     Men in Black III