THE CLEVER PRINCESS RETURNS ONCE MORE

German (ZDF) and Finnish studies have recently completed a co-produced live action version of THE SNOW QUEEN for Christmas this year 2014...

The summary speaks of "the luxurious life of the princess", portrayed by stunning brunette Paula Knüpling, aged 19.
Her intellectual equal is incarnated by strawberry blond heart-throb Moritz Jahn.

19-year-old Paula Knüpling lives in Berlin. She plays sports, the drums, the piano, and the guitar, aside from being an actress. Born in January 1995, she stands 165 cm tall, has got nutbrown eyes and dark auburn hair (so dark it seems to be black).

Moritz Jahn, né Moritz Glaser, was born on the 17th of April (which makes him a brave Aries) 1995, which means he's also 19 years old. He's strawberry blond, with steel-blue eyes, and 187 cm tall. Moritz Jahn speaks English and French aside from German, and he plays tennis, hockey, rugby, and the drums. He's also a skater, a snowboardist, and a singer. He debuted as Karol, the Polish brawn of Die Pfefferkörner, in 2007.

The courtly setting of the Fourth Story is reimagined as Neoclassical/Gustavian, and the costumes are Regency/Napoleonic-era (The princess dons a Jane Austen-style gown without petticoats, with puffy sleeves and an empire waist. The young man wears a waistcoat and long trousers, thus resembling Mr. Darcy) to fit the interiors of the Schloss. Everything recalls the historical period during which the author Andersen was a child.

The scenes will be shot in and around Schloss Schöneiche, a Rococo/Neoclassical eighteenth-century estate in the Eastern German region of Brandenburg (former Kingdom of Prussia!).

The young couple's relationship is interpreted as slightly hot compared to the sheerly intellectual attraction, featured in most versions, that Andersen had in mind.

The film will be extremely faithful to Andersen's original, so we will have at least an oral account, if not a filmed scene, of the courtship.

The two first feelings ran their course complete,

     And lighted first her eye, and then her mouth:

The whole court look'd immediately most sweet,

     Like flowers well water'd after a long drouth.

But when on the lieutenant at her feet

     Her majesty, who liked to gaze on youth

Almost as much as on a new despatch,

Glanced mildly, all the world was on the watch.

From Don Juan by Lord Byron, my other favourite Regency author.

I'm impatient for Christmas to arrive, to see whether this new rendition will be second to the 1970s one with Tracey Childs and Adam Richens... or not?

So all we have to do now is wait for half a year and enjoy these preview pictures. For, like the Starks say: winter is coming...