Interviews
Tommy Wirkola’s “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” TV Spinoff to Have New Creatures and Cast (Exclusive)
Aside from his latest film What Happened to Monday hitting Netflix today, Dead Snow director Tommy Wirkola says he’s been busy the past six months working on a variety of projects – mainly, preparing Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters for the small screen.
“I had an idea for the sequel story so I wrote the first draft of it, but that was it for me, but as far as I heard now, the film is pretty much dead, but what we’re doing now, I’m back on board with the producers Kevin Messick and Adam McKay and those guys, and we’re developing it into a TV show with Paramount and MGM, who are the studios who financed it, so Mark Verheiden is writing the pilot as of now, Mark, of course, is a big writer, lastly he did Daredevil and Evil Dead and as of now, he’s writing a pilot right now, and we’re hoping to take it out to networks in the near future.”
According to Wirkola, he will not only oversee the television adaptation in its entirety, but he will also direct the pilot episode, and possibly some thereafter.
“I will be involved in that whole process, and I will direct the pilot, so I think it’s very exciting, it’s an idea that really suits television, just the nature of it, in that world you can really go to a lot of different places and have fun with it, so it’s exciting, we’re writing a pilot right now and we’re having fun with it.”
Although Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton originally starred as Hansel and Gretel in the Wirkola directed R-rated film, he says that the TV show would bring on new actors, but maintain the same bloody, gritty nature as the original feature.
“It’s gonna be re-cast and it’s gonna be a little bit of a reset on that front, but both Paramount and MGM have been really supportive and really encouraging actually to push the tone as much as we want and keep it R-rated, and even doing the film, there was still some restraint on how far we could push it and how far we could go, but now, they’ve been saying to us, go out there with it and have fun, so we’ll see. But so far they’ve been really supportive of how far we wanna take it.”
Wirkola also mentions that there will definitely be more than just witches in the television show, especially since the format allows for the story to shift in several different directions.
“I think it’s natural that in that world, there would be all different kinds of supernatural beings and creatures, it’s just in a way, it’s a fairytale world and we’re living in it, so there are no limits to where we can go.”
As far as his other upcoming projects, Wirkola says he’s been working tirelessly on a comic book adaptation of Irredeemable for Adam McKay. In the original comic, a superhero named Plutonian goes mad and begins wreaking havoc on the citizens of earth, attempting to wipe them out completely from existence. His former allies attempt to put a halt to his mischevious deeds, but their efforts are seemingly no match for his overwhelming power.
“Right now, what I’m doing is I’ve been writing the past few months, in addition to writing the pilot for Hansel and Gretel, I’ve also been writing a superhero movie for Adam McKay called Irredeemable, but he’s directing it, it’s a super R-rated fun crazy superhero movie based on a comic called Irredeemable and it’s such a fun experience and really crazy source material that’s so timely, and it’s so relevant right now because of the situation of superhero and superhero movies, so I’ve been basically writing the last six or seven months on these two things. As far as directing, I’m not sure yet, but I’m developing a couple of things, and I’m reading scripts, so I hope to be behind the camera again soon.”
Wirkola’s What Happened to Monday is now streaming on Netflix.
Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.
If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series.
Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with Casper. I was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”
For Sawa, “Chucky“ is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue,“ Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”
Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this,‘ the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.“
It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?
“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two,“ Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”
Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”
CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)
The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.
“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot,“ the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”
The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.
“I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque,“ Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost,‘ and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, which is a movie I love.”
The finale of “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.
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