Back in June we found out that Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit director Robert Zemeckis would be directing the long-in-development new take on the Roald Dahl story The Witches. The story was previously adapted into the 1990 movie of the same name starring Anjelica Huston.

Now that adaptation has found its star. It’s being reported that Anne Hathaway has signed on to play the Grand High Witch in the movie, the same role Huston played in the ’90 version.

Producing this new take on The Witches is Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón, both of whom were attached to direct the movie at different times on the long road this project has traveled.

Zemeckis is also producing along with Jack Rapke through their production company ImageMovers, and he will write the screenplay as well.

Here’s a description of Dahl’s story from Amazon for anyone who’s unfamiliar with it:

From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG!

This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches.

Grandmamma loves to tell about witches. Real witches are the most dangerous of all living creatures on earth. There’s nothing they hate so much as children, and they work all kinds of terrifying spells to get rid of them. Her grandson listens closely to Grandmamma’s stories””but nothing can prepare him for the day he comes face-to-face with The Grand High Witch herself!

Zemeckis’s take on Dahl’s tale is said to be much more faithful to the source material, unlike the 1990 movie which is considered a loose adaptation.

The movie has an immense amount of talent already involved. Just between Hathaway, Zemeckis, del Toro, and Cuarón there are six Academy Award wins and eight nominations on top of that.

No release date has been set for The Witches yet.

For anyone who hasn’t seen it, a clip of Anjelica Huston as the Grand High Witch from the 1990 movie can be found below.

Video

[Source: Variety]

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