Sean Bean is the King in Tarsem Singh's Snow White

Sean Bean is in final negotiations to join Tarsem Singh's as-yet untitled Snow White movie, according to Heat Vision.

The actor, and all-round top northern geezer, will play Snow White's father, the king, in one of many competing adaptations of the fairytale story.

To clear up any confusion, this one stars Lily Collins ( The Blind Side ) as the eponymous beauty and Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen. Armie Hammer is also onboard as the handsome, and no doubt charming, Prince Andrew (no, not that one).

The project's closest rival is Snow White And The Huntsman , which stars Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth in the title roles, and boasts Charlize Theron as the wicked sorceress. Huntsman has recently added Nick Frost to its impressive collection of dwarves.

Bean should at least bring gravitas to Tarsem Singh's movie, which is guaranteed to be hugely stylish if it's anything like his previous output.

Having starred in The Lord Of The Rings and, more recently, HBO's Game Of Thrones, Bean is pretty experienced in this fantasy lark.

Singh's Snow White is expected to open in March 2012, ahead of Snow White And The Huntsman , which is due in June that year.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.