In his first movie since welcoming us to Marwen (and we responded, “Nah, we’re good”), director Robert Zemeckis adapted Roald Dahl’s novel The Witches, one of the author’s later and weirder works. The fantasy-comedy film, which stars Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci, Chris Rock, and Kristin Chenoweth, and was written by Zemeckis, Guillermo del Toro, and Kenya Barris, was originally supposed to be released on October 9, but it was taken off the schedule due to the pandemic. But in a surprise move, it’s still coming out in October, just in time for Halloween.
The Witches (watch the trailer above) will debut on HBO Max on October 22 and “head into theaters internationally on October 28,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. “The movie is described as a reimagining of Dahl’s story for modern audiences.”
Here’s the official plot synopsis:
Reimagining Dahl’s beloved story for a modern audience, Zemeckis’s visually innovative film tells the darkly humorous and heartwarming tale of a young orphaned boy who, in late 1967, goes to live with his loving Grandma in the rural Alabama town of Demopolis. As the boy and his grandmother encounter some deceptively glamorous but thoroughly diabolical witches, she wisely whisks our young hero away to an opulent seaside resort. Regrettably, they arrive at precisely the same time that the world’s Grand High Witch (Hathaway) has gathered her fellow cronies from around the globe — undercover — to carry out her nefarious plans.
Zemeckis’ movies are best viewed on the big screen — think: Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Back to the Future Part II (which all came out within four years of each other, which is nuts to think about), and later works like The Walk — but we’ll take any Bobby Z (pair it with the Blank Check podcast miniseries) we can get.
Also, Roger Rabbit still rules.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)
