Order of the Seven on hold at Disney

Multiple reports indicate that Disney has called a halt to all production on its upcoming live-action adaptation of Snow White.

The film, which just recently began casting, has been put on indefinite hold, with no word whether it is being reworked, or simply canned.

It was only last summer when the two rival Snow White films – Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman and Relativity’s then still unnamed Mirror, Mirror – were just kicking off their PR campaigns, that Disney dusted the mothballs off its Order of the Seven.

As you may recall, Order of the Seven was previously titled Snow and the Seven – and along with a new title came a new director and a freshly rewritten screenplay.

We heard little about the development of the film until this past February, when Disney signed on lead actor Saoirse Ronan (Hanna), who was slated to play a British woman befriending a small band of international outlaws while hiding out in Hong Kong in the 1800’s.

The rumor is that budget concerns caused the halt in production, but this is not confirmed. My guess is that Disney saw the mixed reviews and box office draw – numbers which may have been great for Mirror, Mirror’s budget, but wouldn’t be good enough for Disney – and decided people don’t really want more Snow White.

I have a feeling that Snow White and the Huntsman will do much better, however. Perhaps Disney is simply waiting for that film’s box office numbers to show up before making a final decision to give Order of the Seven the green light.