Disaster: Disney Downscales ‘Snow Woke’ Launch; UPDATE: Come On, THR

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Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s time to bury this show …

Disney’s embattled mega-pricey new live-action film Snow White premiers this week. Normally, with a film in which the studio has sunk at least $200 million in production costs alone, we’d see a glitzy event with as many reporters as Disney could possibly fit. For a remake of the 1937 classic that launched The House of Mouse, one might have expected a cavalcade of A-listers that would rival the Oscars for attention and star power.

Instead, Variety reported last night, Disney has scaled back the film’s premier to … your average press briefing at the Burbank city hall:

The afternoon festivities will include a pre-party and screening at the El Capitan Theatre with titular star Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen, expected to attend. However, the red carpet will not include the dozens of media outlets usually invited by Disney to interview the cast and creatives at its premieres.

Instead, coverage will be limited to photographers and a house crew.

You gotta be kidding me. The only chance that this trainwreck has of breaking even is a massive display of celebrity support and goodwill, fueled by the film’s stars to generate audience interest. So why is Disney locking out the media?

Some questions just answer themselves, no?

Unlike usual red carpets, “Snow White” stars Rachel Zegler, 23, and Gal Gadot, 39, will not be answering questions from dozens of different media outlets, as Disney has allegedly handpicked only a select few photographers and a house crew to cover the high-profile event.

Zegler plays “Snow White,” and Gadot stars as the Evil Queen. Both starlets are expected to attend the premiere next week.

Disney did not comment when contacted for comment. The Post reached out to Zegler and Gadot’s reps but did not immediately hear back.

Not hearing back seems to be the plan. The planned changes to the original story had already made Snow White controversial, but Zegler in particular spent the last couple of years pouring gasoline on the fire. Zegler insulted fans of the original, cheered the full-on woke revisionism of the new take on the fairy tale (as did Gadot), and infuriated nearly everyone who would normally want to go to a Disney film. After apologizing for her first round of publicity, Zegler then insulted people who voted for Donald Trump while agitating against Israel in their war against Hamas. The latter put Gadot — an Israeli — in an especially difficult position. 

Does anyone wonder why Disney will only allow interviews now with a “house crew”?

If this is the plan, it’s a big sign that Disney is no longer planning to rescue Snow White from itself or its stars. Projections for its opening weekend in ten days have steadily fallen over the last few weeks, with full-run projections falling far below total costs, including promotion and distribution. Some projections don’t even have the film making back its production budget alone. Disney had been saying that the film has a “perfect runway” for its opening given the action-film competition it will face this month, but a quiet and inexpensive party followed by a barely noticeable El Capitan launch sends a very different message about how Disney predicts this film will perform.

Don’t think for a moment that the studio won’t still spin it way out of embarrassment. The Wrap tried to soften the impact by claiming that Disney’s “more intimate event … was always planned that way.” Always since when, exactly, for a project that likely cost the studio closer to a half-billion dollars after reshoots, delays, added CGI, and distribution get factored into the equation? Since, er … Zegler and Gadot started insulting audiences and got awkward in public:

There has also been the delicate issue of stars Zelger and Gal Gadot, who appears as the Evil Queen in the remake, and their opposing political stances. Zegler has been outspoken in championing a free Palestine and wanting a ceasefire in the Middle East, while Gadot literally served for two years in the Israel Defense Forces and was recently honored at the Anti-Defamation League’s annual summit in New York, where she gave an impassioned speech. Their recent appearance together at the Academy Awards was chilly at best.

It was with all of this in mind that the studio planned a purposefully low-key event, one free of journalists flanking the red carpet. 

Zegler’s been “outspoken” for two years on a variety of topics, especially on those who love the original version of the film. And the only reason for keeping the press away from what was supposed to be a blockbuster is to bury the film as much as possible. What does The Wrap think all of those uninvited industry journalists will write after being excluded from the premiere and access to the principals? I assure you it will not be paeans to the CGI dwarves or Zegler’s girl-bossing, and Disney has to know that, too. 

I’m surprised the film will still get into theaters. Why not just Batgirl it and take the losses? Did Disney’s insurance not cover these contingencies? 

Update: Even The Wrap didn’t spin this as hard as The Hollywood Reporter. They’re claiming that Disney isn’t scaling back at all, but …

In news that broke earlier this week, Disney is taking next-level measures to stage manage the film’s world premiere in Los Angles on March 15. While the event won’t be scaled back, as some headlines claimed, the studio isn’t allowing regular red carpet press to attend in order to prevent Zegler and Gal Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen, from answering questions on the spot. (The studio’s position is that they opted for “a more celebratory, family-friendly afternoon event to match the tone and target audience for the film.”)

Snow White isn’t the first major film to manage a red carpet in such a restricted way. Warner Bros. did much the same for the world premiere of The Flash, starring the embattled Ezra Miller. But Miller had been accused of several criminal acts, whereas Zegler has simply generated social media blowback for comments ranging from criticizing the original film to slamming Donald Trump. Gadot, meanwhile, is a divisive figure on social media due to the Israeli actress speaking out in support of her native country since the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas. After her appearance at the Oscars, a baseless rumor circulated online that the Wonder Woman star refused to present best documentary to the Palestinian film No Other Land (her reps say she was never asked). 

Emphasis mine. As VodkaPundit points out at PJM, not allowing regular press to attend is the very definition of scaling back the premiere. Come on, man. THR goes on to report the opposite anyway:

“They’ve been going through the motions on Snow White, all but saying, ‘We need to get this thing over with,’” an exhibition source tells THR. “An advance sales cycle of less than two weeks just screams, ‘We have zero faith in this thing.’ And it couldn’t come at a worse point, when the industry is just trying to limp along to May.”

So why deny it at first?