Disney updated its theatrical release schedule on Friday, pushing the new “Snow White” starring Rachel Zegler and pulling the prestigious Searchlight drama “Magazine Dreams” starring the embattled Jonathan Majors.
The studio giant also delayed another Disney film and a Pixar title, while removing one Disney and one Pixar project from the calendar as the actors’ strike continues, threatening to upend next year’s movie slate.
The artists’ union, SAG-AFTRA, and the alliance representing entertainment companies planned to meet again Friday in their latest round of negotiations. There is also the matter of Majors, who will be tried in November in a domestic violence case.
Disney’s live-action remake of “Snow White” has been postponed from March 22, 2024 to March 21, 2025. The revival has already faced setbacks: Members of the Little People community have expressed concerns about the potential return of the Little People. “Seven Dwarfs” to the big screen, while conservatives online have made racist complaints about Zegler, who is of Colombian and Polish descent, playing the Disney princess.
After “Game of Thrones” actor Peter Dinklage criticized Disney last year for being “very proud to have cast a Latina actress as Snow White, but… still telling the story of ‘Snow White and the Seven dwarfs,’” the studio issued a statement promising to “avoid reinforcing the stereotypes of the original animated film.”
“We are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community,” a Disney spokesperson told the Hollywood Reporter at the time.
“We look forward to sharing more as the film enters production after a long period of development.”
In a 2022 interview with Vanity Fair, Zegler downplayed “people…who make jokes about ours being PC Snow White.”
“It’s like, yeah, it is, because I needed it,” the “West Side Story” excerpt said.
“It’s an 85-year-old cartoon, and our version is a refreshing story about a young woman who has a role beyond ‘Someday My Prince Will Come.'”
Meanwhile, Searchlight’s “Magazine Dreams,” originally scheduled for release in December, has been removed from the theatrical release schedule entirely. The drama, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, featured Majors as an aspiring bodybuilder willing to risk his long-term health in pursuit of his dreams.
On Wednesday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed that Majors’ trial would begin Nov. 29 in New York. The Marvel actor faces misdemeanor assault and harassment charges after he allegedly punched a woman, Grace Jabbari, with an open hand, cut off her ear, grabbed her hand and pushed her into a vehicle during an altercation at end of March.
Majors’ attorney, Priya Chaudhry, said in August that the “Creed III” star “remains unwavering in his determination to be acquitted of this ordeal.”
Disney did not say whether it planned to reschedule the theatrical debut of “Magazine Dreams.”
The only other project with an affected title is Disney-Pixar’s “Elio,” an animated film about an imaginative boy who embarks on an epic journey into outer space. That film was moved from March 1, 2024 to June 13, 2025.
Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.
2023-11-01 13:37:38
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