So it looks as though Viggo Mortensen has come to his waylaid senses and finally lost interest in playing the huntsman in Snow White and the Huntsman, a fantasy re-imagining of the classic fairytale, in which Kristen Stewart (the Twilight saga) has been attached as Snow White, and Charlize Theron the Evil Queen.

In contrast to the original fable – where the huntsman is ordered by the Evil Queen to take Snow White into the woods and dispose of her, but instead lets her go – director Rupert Sander’s version has the huntsman becoming the waxen maiden’s mentor, teaching her to fight and survive. Sounds like just the role for the former Middle-earth warrior-king, but apparently Mortensen’s $8 million price-tag (plus a gross participation percentage) was too bitter a pill for Universal’s unrefined palate.

This is, however, as it should be, because the only way we could condone dear Aragorn’s participation in the flick is if he was to take Anduril’s death-raying blade to Stewart/Snow White’s superfluous head in one swift, merciful stroke – and that clearly won’t be happening. Sorry.