David Koepp on SWATH 2: 'I Couldn't' See Sequel Being Made Without Kristen Stewart
David Koepp couldn't envision a Snow White and the Huntsman sequel without Kristen Stewart — which is one reason he says he's no longer involved in the project.
Koepp — who scripted Jurassic Park, the original 2002 Spider-Man movie and co-wrote and directed this weekend's new bike-messenger thriller Premium Rush — told Movieline that he departed the project because he had worked on a script idea "that I really liked" involving Stewart's character. "And their situation, I hear, changed a little, so they weren't interested in pursuing that idea anymore."
Koepp said that was a sign for him to move on. "I felt like there was a good path with her, but then they wanted to explore a different thing that I had no ideas for," he explained. "If you don't have any ideas, you should probably put your pen in your backpack and go home." As a result, he added, "we agreed to part ways and stay friends."
When I asked Koepp if he could see a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman being made sans Stewart, he replied: "Well, I couldn't. That was why I felt like I couldn't follow through."
Stewart's involvement in a Snow White sequel has been hotly debated since reports broke in late July that she cheated on her on- and 0ff-screen Twilight love interest Robert Pattinson with SWATH director Rupert Sanders and apologized for it.
On Aug. 15, Deadline reported that, internally, Universal is discussing whether to focus the next movie on the Huntsman character played by Chris Hemsworth, who is fast proving himself to be leading-man material. Universal also bought a crime drama called 90 Church: The True Story of the Narcotics Squad from Hell for Sanders.
Nell Alk is an arts and entertainment writer and reporter based in New York City. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Manhattan Magazine, Z!NK Magazine and on InterviewMagazine.com, PaperMag.com and RollingStone.com, among others. Learn more about her here.
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Comments
Just ditch the director! He was the boss. He should've known better.
Absolutely....
Totally agree with you "ditch the director"... this is sexist!!!
If this turns out to be true, I hope Kristen sues Universal & Rupert Sanders for an unsafe work environment and loss of future employment. 41 year old directors should not be preying on vulnerable, young, female, protogees. Period.
Seems David Koepp just outed Universal as misogynists old boys club we all thought they were. I hope the movie going public takes note of Universals attitude. Hollywood has always taken the lead in demanding equal rights and civil liberties for race and sexual orientation while hiding a thinly veiled believe that women are the lesser sex. Overwhelmingly, female roles in film involve objectifying their body over any other contribution to the story, unless it is to drive the point that only the "good" girls win. The double standards are perverse. I am certain Universal will never remake The Scarlet Letter and make Hester Prynne's character a man.
Interesting observation. Or maybe Universal will come to the conclusion that if it's going to get behind a sequel, Kristen Stewart needs to be in it.
imo, Universal "ordered" her. And Sanders did it with paparazzi. The film didn't pay back an expense with the marketing budget.
Good for David,Kristen was great as Snow White and why the hell is Rupert Sanders name still involved,surely it's easier to get rid of the director,they did it for all the Twi movies...I could not imagine a movie spinoff with just The Huntsman,it's wrong and I for one would not waste my time and money,no reflection on Chris Hemsworth...
Not only Sander's name is still in the project. He has more projects with universal. And still people don't get that Sander's always had the upper hand in this "affair". Why can't women see this. I don't care if you don't like Stewart, what is happening here is just not fair.
Universal should get rid of Sanders AND Stewart. These 2 are dispensable. If they want to reboot the film they should get a better director and a much better and much relatable actress. There are lots of actresses out there who can give a helluva justice to the SW role. They should retain Theron and Hemsworth since in the minds of many, these 2 actors are the real draws in the film.
Hollywood has always taken the lead in demanding equal rights and civil liberties for race and sexual orientation while hiding a thinly veiled believe that women are the lesser sex. I am beautiful woman and I love good man…..inter racial romance is my dream… so I joined —blackwhitеPlanet.С0M—–it's where to- connect with beautiful and excellent people!...I could not imagine a movie spinoff with just The Huntsman,it's wrong and I for one would not waste my time and money,no reflection on Chris Hemsworth...
I say fire them, both, for being extremely unprofessional. While Stewart is young, she's already a woman at 22 with a considerable number of years working as an actress. Not her first job. You don't sleep with your married director/actress while you are STILL working on a franchise. They put Universal in a very difficult situation, having to choose between one of them. If I sleep with my married boss, sure there will be consequences. From what I've heard, Sanders got a new job and Stewart will get one too, so stop bullying her and stop making excuses for her actions. Just move on.
Mary,a kiss is not sleeping with someone or were you never told the facts of life by your Mum....
Just a kiss? Please, don't be naive...
There is only evidence of a kiss and nothing else,and they should get rid of Sanders but as per usual double standards in hollywood at it's finest.
Professors get fired when they become involved with college students... the student doesn't get kicked out of school...that's because of the position of power the professor has and the weaker position the student is in. Film making is an even more intense setting than university. Sanders took advantage of this situation and the opportunity to seduce another beautiful young woman (read about how he got together with his wife, who was also very young when they met). I'm tired of seeing the victim being portrayed as the perpetrator. I had mistakenly thought we had moved beyond that kind of ignorance. Unless I hear that Rupert Sanders is in counseling, I will not be able to stomach another movie with his name attached to it. And if Universal really does continue to work with him and dump Stewart, it will have to be something beyond special for me to pay money to see another one of their films. I will not support this kind of misogyny.
I thought we had moved beyond the kind of ignorance that portrays a woman, an adult, as the victim just because the man is older. I'm a woman, I want to be consider an equal not a victim. I take responsability for my actions. Kristen Stewart is 22, not 17. They're both responsible adults.
Do your research. At 22 a young woman's brain is not fully developed and is actually prone to poor impulse control (25 is the average age of maturity). Young men are even worse. Why did they have to enact laws to prevent this garbage? Why did Universities have to ban teacher student relationships? Students are "adults". Because it's wrong!
I have a 22 year old daughter who just graduated from UCLA (so is more educated and world-wise than Kristen is who was home schooled and sheltered) and yet my daughter is not all that different from her 17 year old self. She also finds the idea of being involved with a 41 year old completely disgusting...like dating a grandfather. There's no way Kristen initiated this...Sanders has a track record of going after younger women (his wife was a teenager when he started pursuing her) and Kristen was his latest conquest. Clearly you have never been pursued by a relentless, confident, persuasive, powerful, much older man who's been directing your thoughts and emotions to the point you don't know your own mind, or you wouldn't be so quick to judge.
I am so tired of our society not sticking up for women when they're being victimized and the message it's sending our young women. And that young women are turning on themselves. It's completely tragic and it's sad that these young women's mothers are reinforcing such thinking. Apparently we're still living in Hardy's era where the women are to blame no matter how foul the men involved might be.
Sanders who? The Universal does not understand anything, Stewart is the name that brings people to the cinema, not a director (pork) unknown.
LOL
Saw WTHR))) She brings noting! And in this film (WTHR) she was ok, in SWATH she was awful.
i'm not even considering seeing it without charlize theron
i'm sorry...maybe i didn't quite understand Universal's decision...kristen stewart played a major role in the Snow White and the Huntsman's success. Yes, both she and the director made mistakes. however, the 41-year-old, married with children, director, who should have known better, gets to keep his job? I've read articles and watched interviews where he talked and talked about Kristen Stewart using countless superlative adjectives whereas the other major characters received perhaps 3 or 6? the guy was or maybe is still obsessed with the 22-year-old actress! Universal, you're crazy! Keep Stewart and get a female to direct the sequel!
Not only does no-one in Hollywood really care about a SWATH sequel, at this point neither does Stewart. It's obvious she cannot continue in such an iconic role with all the baggage that character carries.
I am not saying Stewart should be punished for a private indiscretion, but she has tainted the brand of Snow White. Koepps has done the honorable thing and departed from a franchise he no longer believes in. It's time for Sanders and Stewart to do the same.
Stewart cannot expect to be taken seriously as a serious actress if she keeps allowing PR stories to push the meme that she is a kid and somehow 'lured' by Sanders. He's not a pedophile and they were consenting adults.These are the consequences.
Time to deal.
Why are people screaming "sexist"?
This is about actions committed in bad faith now logically reaping what they sow. It was incredibly selfish of both Sanders and Stewart to cheat on their partners and jeopardize a multi-million dollar endeavor to boot.
This is the highest earning actress in Hollywood with enormous resources at her disposal, a boyfriend who clearly loved her and possibly still does, and films coming at her everywhere she turned. But it wasn't enough, Kristen Stewart had to have more - and more.
Greedy, deceitful and spoilt. Does that sound like Snow White or something that should be rewarded to you? .
There was no affair! Look at the pics. Rupert kissed her and then there are some awkward hugging moments. Where are the rest of the pics and video? They would tell a totally different story than the BS that's being sold right now. Maybe we should take a look at who has benefited from this mess? I smell a set up and Kristen was the victim.
I'm totally agree with you. Media was crazy over a month and recently they are starting watching closely this pics and there is something wrrong I don't know I think the papz have the other pics in secuence that will show us that he is a perv
Err...did you see the sequence of pics as a gif? It was a quite sexual, dry-humping. Inside the car, they were kissing passionate, he kissed her...stomach? Yes, let's be good and say he was kissing her stomach. Please, Kristen Stewart fans, if you think she just woke up that morning, called Rupert and said " Hey Rup, I never thought about us together but...why if we met and kiss for a while in a secuded place?" Yeah, that was what happened.
The Sanders and Universal are the only winners. Rupert cast his wife and his kids in the movie. Liberty is going around playing the wronged wife. Sanders still has his movie deal and his wife. Stewart and Koepp are out.
Brilliant. I love it. This really illuminates that recent on-line brou haha controversy over Kristen Stewart and SWATH 2.
Funny how an article like this still elicits opinions about "the affair" and the moral character of Ms. Stewart.
No one has touched upon that SWATH was only a modest success, considering the budget and marketing costs. Stewart commands a 15-20M paycheck - not worth it in my opinion - and is not a proven box office draw. Replace Stewart with any other capable actress and the box office would have probably been the same. Claims about Stewart being able to carry a franchise are unfounded - Twilight doesn't count because it already had a built-in audience. I would also counter that Robert Pattinson (and Lautner in a smaller sense) is the bigger draw for female tweeners in that franchise.
Sanders did a poor job with the first movie. It got poor crtical reviews and mediocre audience reaction. Why would they keep him after this when they could get a better director who could make them more money? It did okay at the box office but not well enough to justify keeping him.
"90 Church: he True Story of the Narcotics Squad from Hell"
Another movie that I will NOT watch.
and then? Kstew and her horrible acting was the weak link in this mediocre film ... make a sequence without Charlize Theron, who will see it? and finally, if M.Koepp was really so fond of Miss Stewart he would have given her more dialogue to say, right?
What if Kristen was the one who left the project? Do you think Universal would get rid of Kristen? They know shes the reason lots of people watched the movie. not Rupert
I think Kristen would have dropped herself if that sex maniac director is still on the helm. Why did Lyberty did not bulk from the situation? Is it because she's already immune with Sanders constant cheating? Study those pictures very well and you can see what
I don't want Kristen to do a SWATH sequel even if Rupert is not directing it. She already has one successfull franchize and does need another. She is better at small movies. That's where she shines. However, I don't want Sanders to direct the sequel even if Kristen is not in it. I will not ever watch any movies by Sanders, and if Universal lets him direct the SWATH sequel I will boycott any releases by Universal. The douchebag cast his wife and kid in the movie but could not cast real litle people. Enough is enough. David Koepp seems to have integrity, principles and values his work, and I applaud him. I was not interested in seeing Premium Rush although I love Gordon-Levit but I will be watching it this weekend, and I plan to support Koepp's work.
Reblogged this on Soothsayer Never Sleeps and commented:
It's called "Snow White" & the Huntsman for a reason!!
Im not wasting my money to see Christ H if i want to see him i would watch THOR 3, what a dumbas @universal!! This movie is BO bec of Kristen Stewart not bec Christ or Rupper...well dumb universal be ready
for lost your money????????????