Nicolas Roeg brought Roald Dahl's tale of witchcraft and child endangerment to life in 1990, but the fact that a solid adaptation of the books already exists is no impediment to Robert Zemeckis, who is planning his own take on The Witches.
Dahl's 1983 tome finds an eight-year-old boy taken in by his Norwegian grandmother after his parents are killed in a car accident. She's a teller of tales, and he's enthralled by one about witches who seek to kill human children. He's warned to recognise the signs of the demons hiding among the populace and when he encounters an entire convention, let alone a coven, he has to rely on his wits and some friends to battle their nefarious schemes.
Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro, who had been aiming to produce and direct respectively a decade ago (GDT had ambitions for a stop-motion animated movie), will be on board as producers. And according to Variety, Zemeckis – who will also write the latest script – is looking to stay closer to Dahl's book than Roeg's film.
Next up from Zemeckis is Welcome To Marwen, due out in November in the States and January next year here.
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