The Witches (2020 Film)

## The Witches

> *"It doesn't matter who you are, or what you look like, as long as somebody loves you*."
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> ― The Boy's Grandmother
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**The Witches** (alternatively titled ***Roald Dahl's The Witches*** on the poster) is an American-Mexican fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis, Guillermo del Toro, and Kenya Barris. It is based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl, and is the second feature-length adaptation of the novel, following the 1990 film of the same name.

The film stars Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci, Jahzir Kadeem Bruno, Codie-Lei Eastick, Kristin Chenoweth, and Chris Rock.

*The Witches* was originally scheduled for a theatrical release by Warner Bros. Pictures but was later pulled from the release calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was later announced that it would be available to stream on HBO Max in the United States on October 22, 2020, with a theatrical release in select markets on October 28, 2020, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

## **Synopsis**

Set in 1960s Alabama, an orphaned young boy stumbles across a conference of witches, while staying with his grandmother at a hotel, and gets transformed into a mouse by the Grand High Witch.

## **Official 'HBO Max' Description**

> "*Reimagining Dahl’s beloved story for a modern audience, Zemeckis’s visually innovative film tells the darkly humorous and heartwarming tale of a young orphaned boy who, in late 1967, goes to live with his loving Grandma in a rural Alabama town of Demopolis. As the boy and his grandmother encounter some deceptively glamorous but thoroughly diabolical witches, she wisely whisks our young hero away to an opulent seaside resort. Regrettably, they arrive at precisely the same time that the world’s Grand High Witch has gathered her fellow cronies from around the globe—undercover—to carry out her nefarious plans*."
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## **Cast**

* Anne Hathaway as The Grand High Witch
* Octavia Spencer as The Grandmother
* Stanley Tucci as Mr. Stringer
* Kristin Chenoweth as a Mouse
* Jahzir Kadeem Bruno as The Boy
	+ Chris Rock as the film's narrator.
* Codie-Lei Eastick as Bruno Jenkins
* Charles Edwards as Mr. Jenkins
* Morgana Robinson as Mrs. Jenkins
* Eugenia Caruso as Consuella
* Simon Manyonda as Sous-Chef
* Amber Flanagan as Esmeralda

## **Production**

### Development

Talks of a new adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1983 novel *The Witches* began in December 2008, when Guillermo del Toro expressed interest in making a stop motion film. No further developments on the potential project emerged until ten years later in June 2018, when Robert Zemeckis was hired to direct and write the script. Del Toro would produce, alongside Zemeckis and Alfonso Cuarón, in addition to having a screenplay credit.

It was described by Zemeckis as being closer to the original novel than the 1990 adaptation, directed by Nicolas Roeg. Kenya Barris co-wrote the film, which was revealed as taking place in Alabama during the 1960s, instead of the novel's 1980s England, and that the boy protagonist (originally an English child of Norwegian descent in the novel) would be portrayed by an African-American actor.

### Casting

In January 2019, Anne Hathaway was cast in the role of Grand High Witch. Octavia Spencer was cast in February, with newcomers Jahzir Bruno and Codie-Lei Eastick also joining. In May, Stanley Tucci and Chris Rock were added. On September 2020, it was revealed that Kristin Chenoweth was cast in the film.

### Filming

Principal photography began on May 8, 2019, with filming locations including Alabama, Georgia and at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in Hertfordshire, England, and Virginia Water Lake in Surrey, England. It was expected to wrap on June 25. On June 19, a crew member was stabbed in the neck on the Warner Bros. Studios set in Leavesden.

## **Release**

The film was previously scheduled to be released on October 9, 2020, then pushed to October 16, 2020, before being pulled entirely from the schedule rescheduled to debut on October 22, 2020, on HBO Max in the United States.