Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the comedy gods behind Anchorman, Step Brothers and Talladega Nights, have plenty of experience of the weird and downright bizarre. But their next film promises to be the strangest thing they’ve ever done – and that’s saying something.
Ferrell and McKay will produce Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters, a horror-comedy written and directed by Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola, the man behind bonkers looney Nazi zombies pic, Dead Snow.
Ostensibly a sequel to the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale about a brother and sister lured into a witch’s oven after she disguises her lair as a gingerbread house (that old chestnut), Wirkola’s movie will take place fifteen years later, with the all-growed-up Hansel and Gretel now a pair of full-time witch hunters, roaming the countryside offing black hats.
"It's a hybrid sort of old-timey feeling, yet there's pump-action shotguns,” McKay told The Hollywood Reporter. “Modern technology but in an old style. We heard it and we were just like, 'That's a freakin' franchise! You could make three of those!'"
Well, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, shall we? After all, we imagine that someone once said the same thing about Lesbian Vampire Killers. But the involvement of McKay and Ferrell, through their Gary Sanchez production company, is reassuring.
It’s early days yet for the movie, with Wirkola currently working on the outline, but this is one we’ll be keeping an eye on. Wonder if it’ll spark a slew of copycat fairytale sequels: The Little Mermaid as a crack whore, anyone?