This year, Snow White; Next year Hansel and Gretel?

[lunik_the_bard]

So, I literally just read about this upcoming movie and had to immediately write some words about it. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Comments

[lita_of_jupiter]

Also... another Avenger goes to Farytale land

[lunik_the_bard]

Exactly! I'm rooting for Scarlett Johansson to play a version of beauty and the beast who figures out how scary unhealthy the whole thing is and refuses to see the beast until he sorts himself out.

This can happen, yes?

[lita_of_jupiter]

maybe... though I confess I am looking forward for a Cinderella with our Dear Bruce...

Actually I would prefer Tom or Robertbut since they have both starred in period films recently (the shaekspeare adaptation for Tom and Sherlock for RDJ) so that migh not work...

[lunik_the_bard]

I always shy away from Cinderella when thinking about fairy tales to be rewritten. Just because I can't think of a way to make "Woman wishes really hard and waits, then everything she wants happens" into a good story.

Maybe making it about the fairy godmother?

Also, I am 100% for more attractive men in period dress.

[sphinxofthenile]

I'm really rooting for this one not to suck as much as Snow White did, but am not holding my breath. But gods, it could be so amazing.

[lunik_the_bard]

To hell with cynicism! *slaps table* I will get all my hopes up. This is going to be awesome. (What? the anticipation's the best part!)

[sphinxofthenile]

I certainly highly anticipate Rennerpup's everything.

[lunik_the_bard]

I wonder if there'll be a naked Hansel scene.

[lunik_the_bard]

I know, right? Disappointing year so far in movies (Avengers totally excepted!)

Still, the Hobbit is out in December, Spider-Man looks good, The Dark Knight, Brave... Year's not over yet!

[lokifan]

The interview does make it sound very gender-roles-y.

This... hmm. In some ways it sounds great, I love me some sibling bonds, but I feel suspicious. For me personally the big resonance of Hansel & Gretel is that their parents abandon them, and then they win against the witch and go home. Like, to me the way to go with adult!Hansel & Gretel would have emphasis on the weirdness of that being the 'happy ending', but they seem to do be doing them as basically orphans instead? Which is... similar, but not the same. Not a value judgement, it's just not what I'm interested in.

[lunik_the_bard]

The parents are the big thing about this story, aren't they? On my checklist of "why did the first storyteller tell this story", this one always brings to mind frazzled parents telling bratty children that they could just take them into the woods and leave them if they wanted. There's space in this adaptation to explore that - the details I've found (mostly these ones) don't mention the parents at all, which could mean the kids went home, realised home wasn't home anymore and moved on.

But you're right, it feels like they've gone with the trauma of attempted cannibalism instead of the parental abandonment. Which is valid, but I can see your disappointment too.

[freed_wings]

Oooh, this looks like it could be awesome, they make a very striking duo- although for sibling they look nothing alike. Erm yeah, I completely hear you on the female characters front- I hunger for action movies, but they are so consistantly disappointing in terms of having interesting, cool, and plot important (aka ass kicking) women that it's put me off the whole genre.

[lunik_the_bard]

I know, right? It's so sad being a writer among writers in a place where "female" doesn't necessarily dictate the entire personality of a character, and then turn to Hollywood at the end of the day and remember that the rest of the world isn't like that. Action movies are the worst for it, but romance/comedy/"chick flicks" are just as bad.

I just want a character for whom "female" is a footnote, without it being an afterthought!