According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, Walt Disney is going back to the fairy-tale-princess well with Rose Red, the story of Snow White’s sister. The story is a revisionist take that includes sister Rose Red into the Snow White tale.
The studio has picked up a project which has a script by Justin Merz and a pitch by Evan Daugherty that reworks the original script. Tripp Vinson is producing via his Vinson Films banner.
Rose Red is a character that appeared in Grimms’ fairy tales in an adventure that had no relation to the more well-known Snow White and the Seven Dwarves fairy tale that inspired the classic Disney animated film.
Merz’s Red was first penned down as a stand-alone feature, but then Daugherty came up with a new take that made the story closer to the animated classic, giving Rose a “companion piece” feel.
The story is a revisionist take that transposes Rose Red into the Snow White tale, making her a key player in the later part of the classic story. When Snow White takes a bite from the iconic poison apple and falls into her Sleeping Death, her estranged sister, Rose Red, must undertake a dangerous quest with Grumpy and the other dwarves to find a way to break the curse and bring Snow White back to life.
Tara Farney is the executive producer. Merz and Adam Rodin are co-producing the project.
Daugherty knows something about the Snow White tale as he previously wrote Snow White and the Huntsman, the Universal fantasy that starred Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth. Other works include 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Divergent. He is repped by UTA and Jake Wagner at Benderspink.
Merz, repped by Abrams Artists Agency and Festa Entertainment, was a writer on the 2014 animated film The Boxcar Children.
The project is the third fairy tale Vinson has set up at Disney in the last eight months. He has Genies, a prequel to Aladdin, and Prince Charming, a project based upon the iconic character seen in many a fairy tale, already in development at the studio.
