Sneak Peek on Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
A legendary fairy tale transforms --
taking a dark, twisting turn down a new path into fun, fast-paced action and sly,
sinister modern thrills -- in the rollicking action-horror adventure Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.
The story picks up 15 years after siblings Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and
Gretel (Gemma Arterton) hatched their escape from a child-snatching witch, who changed
their lives forever . . . and gave them a taste for blood. Now they have come
of age as fierce, formidably skilled bounty hunters 100% dedicated to tracking
and terminating witches in every dark forest -- hell-bent on retribution. But as the notorious Blood Moon approaches
and a familiar wooded town faces a nightmare for its innocent children, Hansel
& Gretel encounter an evil beyond any witch they’ve ever hunted – an evil
that could hold the secret to their frightening past.
The
Mayor of Augsburg,
Germany
recruits them to rid the town and nearby forests of an evil sorceress Muriel (Famke
Janssen) who is planning to sacrifice many local children at the witches'
gathering during the upcoming 'Blood Moon' night in two days time. To make
things worse, the duo also has to deal with the brutal Sheriff Berringer (Peter
Stormare) who has taken power in Augsburg and conducts a very
indiscriminate witch-hunt of his own.
Children around the world have long had their bones chilled by the
classic fairy tale of Hansel & Gretel, the brother and sister lost in the
woods, then ensnared by an icy-hearted witch who cooks and eats children. At the story’s end, the duo foil the witch’s
cannibalistic clutches . . . but what happened to them next? That’s what writer/director Tommy Wirkola’s Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters dares
to imagine, tackling the question in all its scary, funny and suspenseful
potential. Joining their story as the
adult siblings emerge as the most lethal witch hunters ever to stalk the woods,
the film turns an ancient fable into a no-holds-barred epic of modern action
and adventure.
Immediately, Wirkola saw the makings of a visually ferocious, humor-laced
and action-packed experience for 21st Century audiences raised on
the tale. As he began writing, he determined he would stay true to the spirit
of the original German folk legend -- first published back in 1812 by the famed
unearthly tale-collectors, The Brothers Grimm -- but put no limits on his
imagination from there.
“I wanted the vibe of the original fairy tale but I also wanted to spice
it with all the things I love most in movies – comedy, horror and graphic
action.” he summarizes. “A gruesome aura
was always there in the original tale, but I brought it to the forefront, while
injecting humor. And the story is still
about this really strong bond between brother and sister – the way Hansel & Gretel are driven to stick
together, no matter what it takes, as they confront evil.”
To take Hansel & Gretel out of the annals of legend and
into visceral, contemporary action, Tommy Wirkola knew he would need to find
two strong personalities who could morph these characters from legend to real
life. The search for a contemporary
ideal of how Hansel & Gretel might have turned out – after being raised on
dreams of vengeance against the foul wickedness of witches – led to the pairing
of Jeremy Renner, Oscar®-nominated for his searing action role as an Iraq War
bomb expert in The Hurt Locker and
rising British actress Gemma Arterton, whose allure came to the fore when she
joined the iconic circle of Bond Girls in Quantum
of Solace.
He also found himself wrapped up in what becomes Hansel’s
guiding philosophy. “He and Gretel have
gone through an amazing tragedy,” Renner observes. “They don’t have parents, witches have tried
to eat them and what Hansel has taken away is that you’ve got to take your
personal anger and pain and do something good with it.”
That philosophy has left Hansel with a dry wit and a devastating
way with the weapons needed to go after hard-to-kill witches. For Renner, that meant preparing for some of
the most intensive action he’s done yet, and he especially enjoyed Wirkola’s
take on how hard-fought and harrowing each of Hansel & Gretel’s battle is
against such magically empowered enemies.
“There’s a lot of really arduous action in the film,” Renner
notes. “One of the big difference in
this movie is that while usually heroes win all their battles, Hansel &
Gretel get their butts kicked numerous times.
So in a way we had to face getting beat up every day! But we also had a great time. Tommy brought an incredible tone to the
whole thing, a mix of serious and funny that I think gives the film the quality
of a real adventure.”
Arterton, too, was drawn to the twists of the story. “I love the original fairy tale and this
starts there, then makes a real departure,” she says. “The film joins up with Hansel & Gretel
in the midst of their fame as witch hunters.
But it’s also a time when they’re starting to wonder who they are and
why these terrible things happened to them – which leads them into a very tense
situation.”
Amid
all the snowballing tension, Arterton loved the brother-sister dynamic that
always stays at the heart of the action, no matter how extreme things get. “The sibling relationship is such a great one
to explore,” ayes Arterton. “Hansel
& Gretel have this unstoppable bond but they’re also so different from each
other. She’s the brains of the
operation. He’s the brawn. He’s the joker and the show-off. She’s more the watcher, the researcher, the
one who tries to really understand witchcraft.
They have to each play to their strengths.”
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