Good news for fans of Roald Dahl, spooky season, HBO, or this stellar cast: ‘The Witches’ is coming, and so are the witches. After being scheduled for October 9, then October 16, and then being pulled from the schedule completely, the film is making its way to home theaters just in time for Halloween.
‘The Witches’ is a classic, well-loved tale from Roald Dahl about a boy who encounters a coven of witches with the intent of eradicating children by turning them into mice. The boy–who is never officially named–gets turned into a mouse himself, and must enlist his grandmother’s help to stop the witches. It was previously adapted in 1990, directed by Nicolas Roeg, produced by Jim Henson, and starred Anjelica Huston.
This new version is directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) and stars Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures), Kristin Chenoweth (Broadway’s Wicked), Chris Rock (Grown Ups), and reunites ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ co-stars Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) and Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones). The screenplay was written by Zemeckis, Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth) and Kenya Barris (TV’s Black-ish). Though talks of this remake circled in late 2008, with del Toro expressing interest, it wasn’t until June 2018 that development began, and del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Roma) were attached to produce. In addition to del Toro and Cuarón, the film is a Warner Bros. production, with Warner Bros. also handling international distribution.
‘The Witches’ will be available for streaming on HBO Max starting October 22.
