Disney Nixes Order of the Seven

After over a decade in the pipeline and millions of dollars spent in development Disney has put its live action version of the Snow White fairy tale- "The Order of the Seven" on hold indefinitely says Heat Vision.

Previously titled "Snow and the Seven", the China-set live-action revisionist take has been in development for a decade since Michael Chabon's original script was completed back in 2002.

The reworked script by Jayson Rothwell (Malice in Wonderland) and Michael DeBruyn had x-ed out all of the traditional elements from the fairy tale. As late as last week "Iron Man" writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby were doing a polish of the script and casting was still underway.

In this incarnation, the dwarves are replaced by a 19th century-set disparate band of international outlaw warriors belonging to a centuries-old order who have lost their way. They come upon a British expatriate (Saoirse Ronan) in Hong Kong being chased by an ancient evil, a woman who becomes the catalyst for their redemption.

Commercials director Michael Gracey was gonna helm with filming to potentially begin as early as this fall in the UK.

But everything on the project has been halted in the aftermath of its write down of "John Carter" and the departure of studio head Rich Ross (no replacement has been named).

'Seven' has several things to make the studio pause including its considerable cost, its first-time director, and the rival "Snow White" projects that hit this year (Mirror Mirror that underwhelmed--and Snow White and the Huntsman out June 1st ).

The question now is will Order disappear entirely or wil those involved try stick to rework it to please Disney enough to green light it similar to what happened last year with "The Lone Ranger".