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Disney seems pretty determined to crank out as many live action reboots of classic stories as they can, thanks to films like their live action ALICE IN WONDERLAND, CINDERELLA and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST doing so well. They’re not always updates of animated fare, or sometimes take the classic stories into interesting new territory, like with MALEFICENT or the upcoming re-do of MARY POPPINS. We were originally going to get a live action take on MULAN next fall, but that’s now been pushed back to make way for THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS, based on “The Nutcracker and the Mouse” by E.T.A. Hoffmann. The first trailer was released just a week after it was announced that director Lasse Hallström was being replaced with Joe Johnston, and the production would be undergoing major reshoots for at least a month… this after principal photography was finished Spring of last year. It’s hard to imagine a film this opulent and colorful having to do a month of reshoots, as the financial side of that can’t possibly be cheap. In fact we now should wonder just how much of what we see in the trailers will make it into the final cut of the movie.
This sort of thing seems to be happening more and more in Hollywood, with news of Phil Lord and Chris Miller being replaced by Ron Howard on the Star Wars spinoff Han Solo movie called SOLO (which also underwent major reshoots), and Joss Whedon being brought in to finish JUSTICE LEAGUE (which also had several scenes re-shot and rewritten). There’s been more “director shifting” on films in the last year than I can ever recall hearing about before. Oh well, for the time being, check out the new trailer for THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS below, starring Keira Knightley, Morgan Freeman, Mackenzie Foy, Helen Mirren, Matthew Macfadyen, Miranda Hart, Richard E. Grant, Sergei Polunin, Jack Whitehall, Ellie Bamber, Eugenio Derbez, Meera Syal, Omid Djalili, Marian Lorencik, and Misty Copeland. It definitely feels like they’re going for an ALICE IN WONDERLAND look here, which might not be the smartest play, considering that despite the major box office earnings of the first film, most people really don’t look back on those movies very fondly. Tell us what you think about the final trailer in the comments.
All Clara (Mackenzie Foy) wants is a key – a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box that holds a priceless gift. A golden thread, presented to her at godfather Drosselmeyer’s (Morgan Freeman) annual holiday party, leads her to the coveted key—which promptly disappears into a strange and mysterious parallel world. It’s there that Clara encounters a soldier named Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight), a gang of mice and the regents who preside over three Realms: Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers and Land of Sweets. Clara and Phillip must brave the ominous Fourth Realm, home to the tyrant Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren), to retrieve Clara’s key and hopefully return harmony to the unstable world.
Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff. 
