Director Robert Zemeckis cast Anne Hathaway as the evil Grand High Witch of the new film adaptation of classic children’s book The Witches by Roald Dahl.
Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro along with Alfonso Cuaron and Jack Rapke will produce the film. Black-ish creator Kenya Barris co-wrote the script.
Production is set to begin in April in England at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, Screen Rant reported. Filming will also take place on-location in Southern states.
Zemeckis, who is directing, producing, and writing the script, is putting a spin on the story details in the Warner Bros. adaptation of the horror fantasy novel. He plans to move the setting to the U.S. South—primarily in Alabama—and cast a young African-American male actor as the unnamed protagonist.
However, Zemeckis doesn’t plan to stray very far from the original plot. The new movie will maintain the original characters’ personas, the grandmother’s attempt to flee from the witches, and the Grand High Witch’s sinister plot to transform children worldwide into mice.
The film follows up the previous 1990 adaptation by director Nicolas Roeg starring the creepiest SFX makeup from The Jim Henson Co.’s Creature Shop and Anjelica Huston as the Grand High Witch.
With no official premiere date, Roald Dahl fans will have to wait to relive their childhood nightmares of being turned into mice by nasty-looking witches.
The Witches is the second film based on Roald Dahl books in the past few months. Screen Rant reported in November that producer David Heyman is gearing up for a prequel to the sweet childhood classic Willy Wonka. The film is still in the works, but will also be produced at Warner Bros.
h/t Variety
Photo: IndieWire
