Zemeckis “The Witches” Adaptation (Hathaway)

[Sawyer]

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/robert-zemeckis-witches-adaptation-1202851650/

Robert Zemeckis is in final negotiations to direct Warner Bros.’ adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic book “The Witches,” studio sources tell Variety.

Sources say a deal is expected shortly. Zemeckis will also pen the script, with his partner Jack Rapke producing through their banner ImageMovers, along with Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro. Del Tor had long been attached to direct, but a scheduling conflict led the Oscar winner to vacate the director’s chair.

Based on the 1973 novel, the film follows a seven-year-old boy who has a run in with real-life witches. Warner Bros. had previously adapted the book in 1990 with Anjelica Huston playing one of the title characters, but sources close to the project say Zemeckis’ version will be more rooted in the original source material, while the Huston pic was a loose adaptation.

 

[Iceman]

Oh damn. I'm going to be super interested to see what the Witches look like after all these years of imagining them.

 

[Drizzle]

So is Zemeckis gonna do this as a mocap production, or are those days officially behind him?

Oh damn. I'm going to be super interested to see what the Witches look like after all these years of imagining them.

Did you ever see the 1990 movie? It's freaking horrifying for a children's film.

[YT]TrjLNpfDTi0[/YT]

I don't see how there's much room for improvement. Contrary to the article, I thought the movie was pretty faithful to the book from what I remember, except for the ending. The movie had a happier ending than the book did.

 

[Sawyer]

So is Zemeckis gonna do this as a mocap production, or are those days officially behind him?

Ideally, the latter. It's been almost a decade since his Christmas Carol, but that's also the last family-aimed movie he made. So... I guess we'll see.

 

[terry78]

If they keep the ending, lawd.

 

[Boom]

Isn't this the story where [blackout]they turn the boy into a mouse and cut one of his fingers off?[/blackout]

 

[Jh7058622]

Yes and it's the reason I started loving fantasy and horror as a child.

 

[Silvermoth]

Who wants to be Helena bonham carter will play the grand high witch?

I hope they get lisbeth lundquist as the nan. She’s not Norwegian but she is Scandinavian

 

[Iceman]

So is Zemeckis gonna do this as a mocap production, or are those days officially behind him?



Did you ever see the 1990 movie? It's freaking horrifying for a children's film.

[YT]TrjLNpfDTi0[/YT]

I don't see how there's much room for improvement. Contrary to the article, I thought the movie was pretty faithful to the book from what I remember, except for the ending. The movie had a happier ending than the book did.

I'd totally forgotten that even existed. I'm not sure if I've seen the full film but I do remember the main woman now. Maybe I've only seen the ending.

 

[The Joker]

This is exciting. I love the 1990 movie with Anjelica Huston. But there's a better adaption to be made from the book. I just hope Zemeckis does a better job with this Dahl adapation than Spielberg did with The BFG.

Isn't this the story where [blackout]they turn the boy into a mouse and cut one of his fingers off?[/blackout]

[blackout]Yes the boy gets turned into a mouse, but they don't cut his finger off. His Grandmother is missing a finger from an encounter she had with a Witch when she was a child[/blackout]

 

[Silvermoth]

It’s funny they keep redoing the same ones though but they have never tried the twits

 

[The Joker]

The Twits is a short story. Be hard to stretch it into a movie.

 

[Drizzle]

It’s funny they keep redoing the same ones though but they have never tried the twits

The Twits is a short story. Be hard to stretch it into a movie.

This is Hollywood we're talking about here. They've stretched shorter stories into feature films before, just look at any Dr. Seuss adaptation. But a better example would be Fantastic Mr. Fox. That's one of Dahl's shorter books and it still made for a 90 minute movie. I'd be all for The Twits since I loved that book as a kid, either live action or animated. The trick there is getting the right actors to play the leads.

 

[Jonwo]

This is Hollywood we're talking about here. They've stretched shorter stories into feature films before, just look at any Dr. Seuss adaptation. But a better example would be Fantastic Mr. Fox. That's one of Dahl's shorter books and it still made for a 90 minute movie. I'd be all for The Twits since I loved that book as a kid, either live action or animated. The trick there is getting the right actors to play the leads.

I think a stop motion animated adaptation of The Twits would be fun but it would work well as a live action film, the book isn't that short so it wouldn't be too hard to expand it. I think Olivia Colman would be great as Mrs Twit, I'm not too sure on Mr Twit.

 

[The Joker]

This is Hollywood we're talking about here. They've stretched shorter stories into feature films before, just look at any Dr. Seuss adaptation. But a better example would be Fantastic Mr. Fox. That's one of Dahl's shorter books and it still made for a 90 minute movie. I'd be all for The Twits since I loved that book as a kid, either live action or animated. The trick there is getting the right actors to play the leads.

I think Fantastic Mr. Fox had a lot more material to work with. You had the three evil farmers, the Fox family and the other animals. The premise of Mr Fox stealing from the farmers. Being shot and injured. The farmers trying to dig him out. Then camping his hideout while the fox family slowly starve to death. Then the big digging adventure and finding all the chicken and turkey houses. Badger and the other animals joining in. The big feast etc.

Whereas The Twits is basically two parts; the first half of the book is the Twits just playing nasty tricks on each other - the glass eye in the beer, the worms spaghetti etc. The second half is their pet monkeys warning off birds from sitting on a dead tree covered in super glue so they won't get trapped and turned into bird pie.

That's pretty much it. Fantastic Mr. Fox had a lot more meat to its story, and a larger cast of characters, too. The Twits is great, but there's not enough material there to stretch out like they did with Mr Fox. If they are going to adapt it then they'll need to come up with a lot of new material themselves.

 

[terry78]

The animals will all have to be CG and probably voiced.

 

[Silvermoth]

The Twits is a short story. Be hard to stretch it into a movie.

Well they did that with the hobbit and everyone loved that idea

 

[Silvermoth]

The animals will all have to be CG and probably voiced.

No way put them in a mouse suit

 

[Vapor]

Never read The Witches but the film is alright. Hopefully this is better than the last couple Dahl adaptations.

I've always wanted to see The Twits done...

You could maybe do it more from the monkeys point of view or have one of them as a narrator type.. give some back story on where they came from and how they got captured. The monkeys could be the window in to the Twits world, how nasty they are to each other and others etc.. The "tricks" portion could even be done as flashback stories the monkeys are telling their children and they keep getting interupted by the Twits coming out to try catch them not standing on their heads or to try teach them new circus tricks... and then just tie it together with why and how the monkeys escape..

A stop motion Enormous Crocodile would be cool too..

 

[DarkKnight88]

I actually think all of Dahl’s adaptations so far have been either good or great. Not a bad one in the bunch.

 

[The Joker]

Well they did that with the hobbit and everyone loved that idea

 

[Blitzkrieg]

EXCLUSIVE: Robert Zemeckis’ ‘The Witches’ Remake Is Set In Alabama and Casting African-American Male Lead

It seems that the remake will take more of an American spin than the original film, which had been set mostly in the UK. The bulk of the film will be taking place in the American South, mainly, Alabama.

Here is the plot synopsis for the remake.

When his parents are killed, a young boy goes to live with his feisty, loving grandma, who had a terrifying encounter with witches when she was just a girl. When Grandma realizes that the witches have returned, she flees with the Boy to the swankiest resort in the South — only to realize that they’ve wandered right into a nest of witches, headed by the Grand High Witch, who intends to transform the world’s children into mice — starting with the Boy…

Concerning character/casting details, Warner Bros. is aiming to cast a young 8-10-year-old African-American actor to play the leading role of Luke, but they aren’t calling the role Luke (could be altered depending on the casting). Bruno will be making a come back and pet mouse Daisy will actually be a young girl that had been previously turned into a mouse by a witch. It’s also expected that the Grandmother role is mostly going to an older African-American actress.

Filming is said to be starting up next April in the United Kingdom. It’s assumed that they’ll be using the stages at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in England, where the studio has shot most of their Wizarding World movies. We’ve also exclusively learned a portion of the filming will also take place stateside as well, although a state has yet to be named.

 

[Boom]

A Southern witch movie actually sounds kinda cool.

 

[terry78]

Well that's definitely different. I'll just sit back and wait for the eventual faux backlash.

 

[Drizzle]

Well that's definitely different. I'll just sit back and wait for the eventual faux backlash.

I’m not so sure the original story and film are beloved enough for that to cause a backlash but we are in 2018, after all.