Hansel And Gretel - Witch HuntersIn the past few months, we’ve been getting some excellent images, trailers, posters, and all kinds of great things from the set of two of next year’s biggest fairy tale re-imaginings, Mirror Mirror (until recently known as Tarsem Singh’s As-Yet-Untitled Snow White Project) and Snow White and the Huntsman, led by Lily Collins and Kristen Stewart respectively.

We mustn’t forget, though, that the two Snow White projects aren’t the only big screen adaptations of fairy tale that we can look forward to next year, and we’ve now got the brilliant first image from Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters to share with you, courtesy of EW via Collider.

Hansel And Gretel will star Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton in the leads, both of whom have been very much deservedly rising in the past few years, with a supporting cast that includes Famke Jenssen and Peter Stormare. Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola is making his English language debut helming this, having co-written the script with Dante Harper.

The film sounds like a brilliant take on the original Brothers Grimm tale, with the jumping off point being,

“What kind of adult does a kid become after surviving a trip to a cannibalistic witch’s gingerbread house?”

EW spoke to Arterton about the film, and reading it (you can read it in full here) makes me pretty damn excited for its release next year.

Folk-tales like this have been told over and over again, changing every time. What’s the constant that your movie picks up?
[Arterton:] They resonate with your fears, that’s how these fairy tales worked. They scared you into behaving. This one in particular is about abandonment and being lost and parents leaving you. The heart of it is that these kids grow up to be bloodthirsty witch hunters. It’s a bit tongue in cheek, really. What would Hansel and Gretel be in 15 years time?

Though it’s comedic, deep down it’s about abused kids becoming kind of hyper-responsible?
But it’s also very, very dark, and bloodthirsty and there’s a lot of cursing. It’s kind of got a [Quentin] Tarantino feel, really.”

Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters will hit cinemas in 3D here in the UK 2nd March next year, which is a date I’m really looking forward to. Without further ado, here’s the great first look at Renner and Arterton looking awesome and ready to hunt some witches. I have a feeling this is going to be brilliant. As usual, click to enlarge.

Hansel And Gretel - Witch Hunters