After being delayed a full year, the $50 million budgeted HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS looked like it was going to be a massive flop. Critically panned, the English-language debut of DEAD SNOW director Tommy Wirkola went on to gross over $200 million worldwide and a sequel was greenlit by Paramount. Since then, we haven’t heard much.
Wirkola, whose DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS DEAD opens domestically in October, offered a status update on the HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS sequel in an interview with Shock Till You Drop.
“I’ve written the script for it,” Wirkola told me at Fantastic Fest. “I’ve given it to Paramount and it’s up to them now. But I don’t know what’s going to happen. Jeremy [Renner] is so busy these days, I don’t know how they’re going to juggle all of that, but it’s up to [Paramount]. We’ll see. Hopefully, I’ll get to do another film first. They really liked the script I gave them. The first film was a learning curve for me working in the studio system and the script I wrote for the original was so different. We ended up taking a lot out and altering stuff that first time. I’m smarter now. I tried taking what I learned and still delivered a sequel script that’s an R-rated action film.”
Wirkola’s first film was an over-the-top gorefest and not something to be taken seriously. Many movie fans found it to be a lot of fun which could account for the overseas success. The studio didn’t do it any favors, but making the sequel PG-13 would be a death sentence for any hopes of it doing well domestically the second time around.
As for Renner, with the recent news that Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass are reuniting for a new Bourne film, his calendar may open up now that AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON is wrapped and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5 is underway. Whether the studio can afford Renner now is the question. But, would the movie even be worth it without him?
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