According to Variety, Back to the Future and Forest Gump helmer Robert Zemeckis is in final talks to write and direct a new adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel The Witches for Warner Bros. Pictures.
Published in 1973, The Witches follows a young British boy and his Norwegian grandmother who find themselves up against a group of witches with a hatred of children. It was previously adapted for the big screen by Warner Bros. and director Nicolas Roeg in 1990, with Anjelica Huston starring as the Grand High Witch.
Guillermo del Toro had previously been attached to the director’s chair on the new version, but has encountered scheduling conflicts which has forced him to vacate. The Oscar-winner remains attached as producer alongside Alfonso Cuaron, as well as Zemeckis and his ImageMovers partner Jack Rapke.
Warner Bros. has been keen to team up with Zemeckis after meeting with the filmmaker about the planned DC Films solo movie The Flash. Zemeckis chose instead to direct Welcome to Marwen, Universal Pictures’ adaptation of the 2010 documentary Marwencol, which revolves around the victim of a violent assault who constructs a miniature World War II village in his yard in order to aid his recovery and finds himself escaping into a fantasy world.
