The official first studio promo for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters has arrived.
brightcove.createExperiences();Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton star as the classic fairytale pair who, as children, had an ill-fated run-in with a witch in her gingerbread house. Ill-fated for the crone, that is, as she ended up a witch flambe in her own oven.
Nothing was written about how that affected the titular twosome, so writer DW Harper and director Tommy Wirkola have followed them into adulthood, where they roam the world tracking and killing witches wherever they find them. Naturally, their latest mission turns out to not be quite as easy as they think.
The jury’s out on this one: while Wirkola brings some faith having made **Dead Snow **and has been allowed to play with R-rated action again, the film was shoved back from release this year and looks like it could fall on either side of the fun / failure line. Arterton and Renner certainly know how to make material like this work, but we’re haunted by the spirit of Van Helsing in the style, effects work and some of the tonal issues. Still, this is just the first trailer, and the word on this gives us reason to hope. The movie itself arrives on March 15.