Disney Halts ORDER OF THE SEVEN Indefinitely
Things are not looking good for Order of the Seven. THR reports that the Disney has put the long planned Asia-set adventure movie on hold indefinitely. Saoirse Ronan (Hanna) was set to star and Michael Gracey was to make his directorial debut on the project, with production planned as soon as this summer in London. The film has been in the works for a decade at Disney. It began as a Snow White retelling, and was in the midst of finding an international cast to play a band of warriors tasked with protecting a young woman. Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Iron Man) had even been hired last week to polish the script. As of now, all development on the film has stopped.
The box office disaster of John Carter is partly to blame, according to sources. Ever since the failure Disney has been scrutinizing budgets on all of its tentpole movies. We do not currently know what the budget for Seven was, but it must have been enough to give the studio pause. I am sure that having a first time director in the mix did not help matters either. It does not help that Disney does not have a studio head at the moment. Rich Ross, who was overseeing development of Seven, resigned in April after the $200 million loss on John Carter. A replacement has yet to be named by Disney CEO Bob Iger.
It is a shame that John Carter did not do as well at the box office. I may be one of the few who actually liked the movie. Order of the Seven sounds like a movie I would enjoy seeing. What about you?
Order of the Seven was first set up by producer Andrew Gunn as "a live-action kung fu take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but later evolved into a fantasy-action adventure tale.The story centered on a young woman who, in 19th century Hong Kong, escapes her wicked stepmother and takes refuge with seven men belonging to an ancient order dedicated to fighting demons and dragons."
It is a shame that John Carter did not do as well at the box office. I may be one of the few who actually liked the movie. Order of the Seven sounds like a movie I would enjoy seeing. What about you?