Scarlett Johansson, a Cyber-Enhanced Perfect Soldier in "Ghost in the Shell"

Tony and BAFTA winner and four-time Golden Globe nominee Scarlett Johansson leads the highly diverse cast of Paramount Pictures' Ghost in the Shell, the live-action adaptation of the internally acclaimed Japanese manga.

In the near future, Major (Johansson) is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world’s most dangerous criminals. When terrorism reaches a new level that includes the ability to hack into people’s minds and control them, Major is uniquely qualified to stop it. As she prepares to face a new enemy, Major discovers that she has been lied to: her life was not saved, it was stolen. She will stop at nothing to recover her past, find out who did this to her and stop them before they do it to others.

REEL DEAL: Snow White and the Huntsman REVIEW

Skin white as snow, lips red as blood, hair black as night, bring me you heart... my dear... dear... Snow White.

Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all...

These are the lines that people recognize and know belongs to the well loved fairy tale now brought to a different light with Snow White and the Huntsman. Kristen Stewart (Twilight), Chis Hemsworth (Thor, Avengers) and Charlize Theron leads the cast as Snow White, Huntsman, and Queen Ravena respectively.

And even with new take of the story, the key elements are still there like the magic mirror, dwarves, and the poison apple. This is similar to the latest Alice in Wonderland who is also the producer for this film. It is also not all evil with the queen but also shows the journey on how she became the queen with the mirror. 

Kristen Stewart makes a break away from her twilight image and also impressive with her action scenes, also Chris Hemsworth weilding axes and knives instead of a hammer. 

REEL DEAL: Snow White and the Huntsman - Charleze Theron SPOTLIGHT

Charlize Theron’s monsters turns to evil queen.

Reflects director Rupert Sanders on the power of this creature in our minds, as well as her role in this interpretation of the iconic story: “The Queen symbolizes death, and she is trying to stop her own from arriving.  She is seeking immortality, so everything in the kingdom is thrown off balance.  Oppositely, Snow White is the beating heart of life, and the Huntsman’s job is to take that life.  If the Queen fails, life and death may fall back in sync and the kingdom will return to how it once was.”

Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron was brought aboard to play the fabled monarch.  Discussing his decision to cast Theron, Sanders commends: “Charlize has given such staggering performances in her career, but she is also such an incredibly beautiful woman.  She encompasses, more than any other actor out there, both power and beauty personified.  She is Margaret Thatcher-meets-Kate Moss.” 

REEL DEAL: Snow White and The Huntsman - Kristen Stewart SPOTLIGHT

Kristen Stewart Twilight’s turning into Snow as White

In Snow White and the Huntsman, a breathtaking new vision of the legendary tale begins. Kristen  Stewart  plays the only person in the land fairer than the evil Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron).The casting of Ravenna’s nemesis was slightly trickier than finding her pursuer.  The filmmakers were searching for an actress who could capture both sides of the archetypal character: the innocence, naiveté and tenderness that Snow White demonstrates in the first half of our story, and the tough, physical warrior princess that she becomes in the second half.  They discovered a number of younger actresses who could play the first half of the movie brilliantly but had trouble convincing the team that they could carry off the tougher persona.  Likewise, when older actresses auditioned, they could well portray the battle-hardened soldier but were unconvincing as the recessive captive that the film’s early scenes demanded.  

REEL DEAL: Snow White And The Huntsman - Chris Hemsworth SPOTLIGHT

Chris Hemsworth : From ‘Thor’ to legendary Huntsman

The other title character to be cast was, of course, the Huntsman: Eric, a hunter who knows the Enchanted and Dark Forests like the back of his hands.  Not only did the Huntsman once have respect for the animals he tracked, he also still has the ability to think like one.  But after his wife, Zara, died, Eric found his only comfort as a mercenary and a drunk.  Now, the Huntsman has been tasked to follow Snow White into the forest and return her to Ravenna, who needs to consume her heart.  But when Eric discovers the treachery of the Queen, he channels his rage into training a young woman who is determined to end what Ravenna began.  Eric begins to see in Snow White an end to the darkness and to believe that the king’s standard could fly again. 

Initially conceived as a character much older than Snow White, the Huntsman morphed during the screenplay’s development.  Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, was courted for the part after the filmmakers watched him in his career-defining role as the Nordic god of war.  His charisma and on-screen presence convinced them that he could embody the tortured former soldier who finds salvation in a young woman called Snow White.  

REEL DEAL: Snow White and the Huntsman SPOTLIGHT

In the epic action-adventure Snow White and the Huntsman, Kristen Stewart (Twilight) plays the only person in the land fairer than the evil queen Oscar® winner Charlize Theron out to destroy her. But what the wicked ruler never imagined is that the young woman threatening her reign has been training in the art of war with a huntsman Chris Hemsworth (Thor and The Avengers) dispatched to kill her. Sam Claflin (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) joins the cast as the prince long enchanted by Snow White’s beauty and power.

The breathtaking new vision of the legendary tale is from Joe Roth, the producer of Alice in Wonderland, producer Sam Mercer (The Sixth Sense) and acclaimed commercial director and state-of-the-art visualist Rupert Sanders. 

“Snow White and the Huntsman” is released and distributed by United International Pictures through Solar Entertainment Corp.