Getting fired up about fables

Once upon a time in La-La land, studio executives couldn't get enough of plots borrowed from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. Actually, it wasn't that long ago or that far away. Only this month London saw the premiere of

The role of Snow White in Universal's version will be played by Kristen Stewart, and producers are understandably keen that Hugh Jackman should play the prince. Instead of the poisoned apple, Evil Charlize will despatch the prince to get rid of her stepdaughter, only for him to fall in love with her. The script is one of three versions of Snow White currently in production (Julia Roberts is in one of the others, with Lily Collins, daughter of Phil) so we can look forward to 21 dwarfs. The new version of Hansel and Gretel, directed by Norwegian film-maker Tommy Wirkola and released next March, takes place 15 years after the siblings have stuffed the witch in the oven. Set in Berlin, the enfants terribles (Hansel is played by The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner) have matured into bounty-hunting 'witch-catchers'. There is even a dark version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin circulating in Hollywood, with Narnia actor William Moseley (he plays Peter) tipped to go from child star to child-catcher.

It's all a long way from 'Whistle While You Work'. But then again, Disney's Snow White was first released in 1937 - long before the global sensation that is the Twilight series, the Stephenie Meyer books that managed to transform a mittel-European myth into a story of lusty teens and bloodsuckers who look like Calvin Klein models, making billions in the process. Modern takes on fairy tales are all about sex, repressed desires and looking hot; and even the fashion business is jumping on this crystal bandwagon. Mulberry's autumn/winter collections were inspired by Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox. Rodarte's sparkly fur and feathers creations (they were the costume designers for Black Swan) are suitably fantastic. Dare it even be said that the imminent princessy nuptials have also inspired fairy-tale fashions, from encrusted silvery grey gowns by Elie Saab to winged capes at Issa. It strengthens our collective faith in magic to know that for this poor put-upon Cinderella One Day Her Prince Did Come.

Fairy-tale escapism has long been an integral part of the British psyche. The novelist Angela Carter, who died in 1992, was the fairy godmother of the form, collecting anthologies of folklore from around the world. Carter's apotheosis was The Bloody Chamber, a collection of her interpretations of classic tales with feisty, thoroughly unrepressed heroines. The literary critic Marina Warner has suggested that the most shocking element of Carter's fairy tales, first published in 1979, was not the witchy hags but the hot female desire experienced by her gung-ho girl-women. In The Company of Wolves, Little Red Riding Hood rather likes the look of her wolfman, her shawl is synonymous with her burgeoning sexuality and she laughs in the face of imminent death.

With such material it was inevitable that film-makers should turn again and again to fairy tales for inspiration. 'These are stories with massive appeal - peculiar, lovely dark stories. They are everyday and magic at once,' says fairy-tale expert, and editor of the US journal Fairy Tale Review, Kate Bernheimer. She is optimistic about the efforts of Arterton, Stewart, Theron and co: 'Like fairy-tale characters themselves, actors often have mysterious charisma and intense intuition. If you look at the old stories they are not deeply psychological; they are much more primal than that.' All the better to eat popcorn with? ES