The Witches starring Anne Hathaway is heading to HBO Max this month. Moreover, the movie is an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story.
The children’s dark fantasy adaptation is based on Roald Dahl’s novel of the same name, published in 1983. Other than its movie adaptation, The Witches has been developed into audio reading, stage play, and a two-part radio dramatization for BBC.
The Witches showrunners scheduled the movie’s release on Oct. 9, 2020. However, it was pulled out from the movie screen release schedules in June 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic closed out most of the cinemas and threw the theatrical calendar in disarray.
The movie is a welcome addition to the streaming platform. This will let them compete with streaming giant Netflix and up starters like Disney+ and AppleTV+. The first trailer was recently released on YouTube by HBO Max.
“The Witches” Backgrounder
Set in 1960s Alabama, the movie follows the story of an orphaned young boy named Luke. While on vacation with grandmother Helga, he stumbles across a conference of witches. He discovered the Grand High Witch’s plan to turn all children into mice.
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They intend to do this by injecting small doses of her special potion to sweets across the country. Together with his friend Bruno, Luke and Grandmother Helga thwart their evil plans. Joining them in the battle against the witches is the harassed hotel manager.
They plan to defeat the witches by stealing a bottle of the potion and mix it into the soup served for the witches. The potion in the soup turned all the witches into mice. Hotel staff and guests join in killing the mice, thus ridding Alabama of all witches.
Movie cast
Octavia Spencer, as grandmother Helga, stars against Anne Hathaway who plays the role of the Grand High Witch. Jahzir Kadeem Bruno plays Young Luke and Codie-Lei Eastick as Bruno Jenkins. Stanley Tucci plays Mr. Stringer as the hotel manager, and Chris Rock joins the cast as the Narrator.
Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, and Stanley Tucci star in #TheWitches on October 22 on HBO Max. pic.twitter.com/u0ZSWqLj57
— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes) October 3, 2020
On the other hand, Robert Zemekis, writer and director, describes the new adaptation as closer to Roald Dahl’s 1983 novel than that of the 1990 movie adaptation. Furthermore, he goes on to say that the current adaptation is very much a family film and rated PG. The 1990 version terrified a generation of children.
The movie is going to be Warner Bros’. and streaming service HBO Max’s Halloween film feature.
Who’s behind “The Witches” movie?
The Witches is co-written by Kenya Barris and Guillermo del Torro. Adding to the line-up are co-producers Alfonso Cuaron, Jack Rapke, and Steve Starkey.
Image Courtesy of Warner Bros. UK/YouTube Screenshot