Disney receives £30m in tax relief from the Government for making live-action Snow White remake at Pinewood Studios and on location across Britain
- Vast figure would have been enough to buy 30 MRI scanners for struggling NHS
Even the Hollywood actress playing the title role has described the upcoming live-action Snow White remake as ‘politically correct’.
The son of the director of the 1937 Disney original has also branded it ‘woke’ over the replacement of the famous seven dwarves with a group of multi-ethnic ‘magical companions’.
Now it can be revealed that the film has effectively cost UK taxpayers £30million on account of tax breaks on filming at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire and on location across Britain.
The vast figure, awarded under a lucrative tax credit scheme designed to boost the British film industry, would have been enough to buy 30 MRI scanners – or pay for more than 7,600 hip operations.
Due to be released next March, Snow White is Walt Disney’s latest live-action ‘reimagining’ of 20th century classic animations rewritten for modern audiences.
Even Hollywood actress Rachel Zegler (pictured) who is playing the title role has described the upcoming live-action Snow White remake as ‘politically correct’
Due to be released next March, Snow White is Walt Disney’s latest live-action ‘reimagining’ of 20th century classic animations rewritten for modern audiences
The film has effectively cost UK taxpayers £30million on account of tax breaks on filming at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire (pictured) and on location across Britain
It features West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler in the title role along with Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen.
READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Snow White and the Seven… Politically-Correct Companions? First pictures of new live-action remake of Disney classic shows stand-in princess walking with diverse band of merry men and women after row over using dwarf actors
Ansu Kabia plays the Huntsman and Andrew Burnap is Jonathan, a new character who replaces Prince Charming from the original movie.
However its production has been beset with controversy, with Zegler – a Latina actress of Colombian descent – saying in a now-deleted tweet that she was ‘not bleaching my skin for the role’.
Meanwhile, Disney announced that ‘magical creatures’ would replace the seven dwarves to ‘avoid reinforcing stereotypes’ after Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage criticised the ‘f****** backwards story’ last year.
Addressing criticism that the film was trying to be politically correct, Zegler said the story needed ‘refreshing’.
‘People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White… yeah, it is – because it needed that,’ she said.
This summer images from the production showed the troupe – a mix of genders, ethnicities and heights – striding across a Bedfordshire meadow.
It prompted David Hand, whose father directed the original animated Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, to brand the changes ‘insulting’ and ‘woke’ – claiming that both his father and Walt Disney himself would be ‘turning in their graves’.
The adaptation features West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler (pictured) in the title role along with Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen
The son of the director of the 1937 Disney original has also branded it ‘woke’ over the replacement of the famous seven dwarves with a group of multi-ethnic ‘magical companions’
The finances of blockbuster movies are usually a closely-guarded secret – but those filmed in the UK are an exception.
They benefit from the Government’s Film Tax Relief scheme which gives studios a cash reimbursement of up to 25 per cent of the money spent in the UK provided that it represents at least 10 per cent of the production’s total costs.
In order to do so, international studios set up separate companies and file accounts showing everything from staff numbers to the amount of tax relief they receive.
Snow White was made by Disney’s UK subsidiary Hidden Heart Productions whose recently-filed accounts show that over the three years to July last year, Disney spent £150.5million on making the movie.
That included £29.5million in tax relief which was reinvested into the production.
Last year it was revealed that the first four series of Netflix TV series The Crown benefited from Government tax breaks totalling almost £60million – despite being widely condemned for its far-fetched depictions of the Royal Family.
Supporters say the scheme benefits the UK as studios use production firms and staff from this country.
According to the British Film Institute, before the pandemic every £1 of tax relief generated £8.30 for the UK economy – either through direct expenditure or in creating new opportunities.
Sources stressed that Disney has spent ‘billions’ on production in the UK since 2019, directly supporting ‘tens of thousands’ of jobs on projects including ‘dozens’ of feature films.
The studio declined to comment on tax relief payments towards making Snow White.
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