Dinklage v. Snow White; the Real L.A.; Putin’s Nemesis

Peter Dinklage gets Disney to rethink its revival of of Snow White; Emily the Criminal loves L.A. for richer and for poorer; meet Vladimir Putin’s poisoned, imprisoned and unflaggingly courageous nemesis. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

But First: In case you missed it, our list of the Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker is out. Congratulations to the 25 cities and 10 small cities and towns that you may want to move to.

Snow Whaaaaa? Disney has promised to rethink the whole “seven dwarfs” thing in its unnecessary Snow White live-action reboot.  “To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community. We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period,” a Disney spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.

The Backstory: This comes in response to Game of Thrones and now Cyrano star Peter Dinklage talking on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast about Disney’s casting of West Side Story star Rachel Zegler as the new Snow White. “Literally no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White — but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Dinklage said. “Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way, but then you’re still making that fucking backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together? What the fuck are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”

The Hollywood Reporter Helpfully Adds: “Dinklage is not involved with the Disney project.” No kidding.

For the Record: The dwarfs didn’t live in a cave! They worked in a cave. They lived in a sweet cottage that Snow White herself declares “adorable,” though she later criticizes their housekeeping.

Also? On behalf of myself, Gary, Ted, Juan, Craig, Chad and Lance, there is nothing wrong with seven men living in a cave. Batman lives in a cave!

But Seriously/May I Editorialize: I checked Reddit, and yep, there are lots of predictable jokes about Political Correctness Run Amok™. But what many people with weird agendas now call “political correctness” used to be called just “being nice to people.” Yes, you have a right to say shitty things about people, but why would you say or do something that you know is going to hurt someone else? Aren’t there a bunch of other things you could do instead?

I Mean, Unless It’s Vladimir Putin Or Something: Because seriously, fuuuuuuck him. I just watched the captivating secret Sundance doc Navalny, which Caleb Hammond wrote about yesterday, and people who think they’re being oppressed by political correctness should really watch it to get a sense of proportion. Alexei Navalny is a Putin opponent who, the doc strongly suggests, has been poisoned and now imprisoned for daring to call Putin a thief. The doc, by Daniel Roher, is a devastating, thrillling and inspiring look at standing up to oppression.

The Real L.A.: “There’s kind of a ragged energy to L.A. when you don’t have any money,” says Emily the Criminal director John Patton Ford. He talks to Margeaux Sippell about how his Aubrey Plaza thriller, which just premiered at Sundance, captures the Los Angeles you don’t see often onscreen. He adds: “People come here, no matter who they are, no matter what they’re doing, you can almost always assume they really wanted something. They wanted something greater than what they could get wherever they’re first from, whether it’s someone who came here from Cambodia to open a donut shop or someone who came here from South Carolina to make movies.”

In Other Real L.A. News: Did you know that Elliott Smith used to live in Los Feliz’s Snow White cottages? Love this guy.

Main image: Snow White cleaning up after seven men, which is another thing we should maybe talk about.