Relativity Media has announced that it has signed on Oscar-winner Julia Roberts to play the evil and vain Queen in its upcoming untitled Snow White feature. Tarsem Singh (Immortals, The Cell) will direct.

Want to sigh? Rather than a dark take on the tale with Julia Roberts doing some edgy material outside of her range, the film will be a “more modern tale full of comedy and adventure”.

Uck. Look what Disney hath wrought. It’s a far cry from the original Brothers Grimm tale, which saw the Queen being killed by being forced to dance in heated iron shoes until she dropped dead, and where and it wasn’t the kiss from a prince that woke up Snow White- it was his jostling that made her cough up a piece of poisoned apple lodged in her throat. Quite romantic.

The script for Singh’s version was written by Melissa Wallack (Meet Bill) and Jason Keller (Machine Gun Preacher) and it’s being produced by Ryan Kavanaugh (The Fighter), Bernie Goldmann (300) and Brett Ratner (Rush Hour franchise). Pre-production has started and principal photography begins in April, with a planned release date of June 29th, 2012.

Relativity’s CEO Ryan Kavanaugh commented, “Julia was our first and only choice to play the Queen. She is an icon, and we know that she will make this role her own in a way that no one else could.”