Since the project was first announced early last year, things have been decidedly quiet on Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, the horror comedy being produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. But now it sounds like the movie is getting close to its leads, with Jeremy Renner and original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Noomi Rapace reportedly on for the job.

Renner, talking to Norwegian site Dagsavisen (via Twitch, because we can’t read Norwegian) at the Venice Film Festival, apparently dropped the news that he and Rapace are in talks to star as the titular pair.

Tommy Wirkola, the man who brought the world madcap Nazi zombie film Dead Snow, is in the director’s chair for the tale of Hansel and his sister in what is being lined up as an action-packed sequel to the original Grimm’s fairy tale about two children lured into a witch’s house with the promise of sweet treats. They manage to escape after shoving the duplicitous old crone in an oven and now, 15 years later, the grown-up siblings are full time witch hunters.

Wirkola has been hard at work on the script, has now nabbed both Renner (recently cast in the next Mission Impossible film) and Rapace, who has been meeting with every director and talent scout in Hollywood after making an impact as Lisbeth Salander in the three Swedish adaptations of Stieg Larson's books.

Until there’s an actual announcement (though given that Ferrell and McKay’s Gary Sanchez productions is behind it, we doubt any press releases will be 100% serious), we’ll mark this one down as a rumour. But we’re more than ready to see it happen.