Viggo Mortensen Eyeing Role in 'Snow White and the Huntsmen'

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Viggo Mortensen is in negotiations to star in Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman.

The project is one of several high-profile Snow White projects around town, with its casting the farthest along. Charlize Theron is in talks to play the evil queen, while the studio is screen-testing actresses for the role of Snow White. Emily Browning, who appears in Zack Snyder's Suckerpunch, tested last weekend.

This retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale plays up the character of the Huntsman, a secondary character in the centuries-old tale, who becomes Snow White's protector and mentor.

Michael Fassbender had been in the mix for the part; the actor is now co-starring with Noomi Rapace in Fox's Prometheus.

Joe Roth is producing.

Mortensen, repped by WME and Lynn Rawlins Management, last starred in The Road. He has two indies in the can, one of which is David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Mind, in which he plays Sigmund Freud opposite Fassbender's Carl Jung.