By Warner Bros. and Robert Zemeckis are in final negotiations for him to direct a remake of Roald Dhal’s The Witches. This is meant to be a more direct adaptation of the book in which a boy returns to England with his grandmother, an ex witchophile (which clearly means witch hunter) and battles against the child-hating spellcasters.
The original was a good deal of fun that still holds up surprisingly well, due in no small part to the great work of the Jim Henson Company. It’s a bit dark and weird and full of slapstick hijinks. It’ll be interesting to see what Zemeckis and an undoubted load of CGI will do for the update.
Guillermo del Toro will be helping to produce, so hopefully he’ll be able to add some visual flair.
But between this and the casting rumors for a suspected Willy Wonka remake, it looks like Hollywood might be about to go through what some refer to as Roal Dahl fever. What could be next? James and the Giant Peach? Matilda? The sky’s the limit when it comes to mining the past for slightly different versions of the same stories!
Robert Zemeckis to Direct Adaptation of Roald Dahl’s ‘The Witches’ (EXCLUSIVE) [Variety]
