Did you ever wonder what might have happened to fairy tale characters Hansel and Gretel 15 years after that fateful day when they pushed a witch into an oven? No, neither did I. But director Tommy Wirkola and his co-screenwriter Dante Harper did, so now we’re getting the new action film Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as the titular duo. That’s a ridiculous idea, so scoff if you must, but I’m starting to think this movie might actually do pretty well. We’ve already written about how awesome it is that Peter Stormare is set to play the villain of this piece, and now Entertainment Weekly has revealed the first official image from the film, which has Renner and Arterton all butched up in black leather with big guns (check out the full photo after the break), and they’re throwing around buzz words like “dark” and “violent” in the accompanying interview. All the talk of darkness and grittiness isn’t just casual though, it’s hammered home in a way that suggests they’ve been instructed by the studio to push how decidedly not for kids this movie is going to be. Arterton told EW, “You see a series of flashbacks with their experience of killing that first witch, which is brilliant. I remember being on set for the final few days of that. The candy house, and the witches are really repulsive and quite frightening. The make-up is out of this world. It’s this bone-chilling scene. Very [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Jeremy Renner. Famke Jannsen. Now Peter Stormare. The casting for Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is enough to send interest into the stratosphere. I also here Gemma Arterton can act one out of every three movies or so, so she’s ripe for this one. According to Deadline Växjö, Stormare will be joining the fantasy film as a sheriff with some ethical problems named Berringer. Like his bad-tasting-wine name suggests, he’ll be playing a bad guy. Is there anything more to say about that? Stormare, villain, done deal. The guy is terrifying, and for all the roles fans most likely recognize him for, one that still has yet to see US theaters or rental queues is Corridor where he barely says anything and still remains almost solely responsible for nerve-destroying fear. Of course this isn’t the first time Stormare has ventured into this territory. He played a gun-toting character in Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm back in 2005.

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

Hey, you. Yes, you. No, not that person behind you who seems curiously intent on strangling you with a stand of fishing line. You. I’m guessing you are here because you want to know what’s going on in the world of movies? And chances are you’ve had about enough of the “Film School Rejects attitude” seen in other, more wordy editorials. I’m here to rescue you and give you only the news that you crave as we both stare up at the moon together. And just as you realize that the guy behind you was, in fact, killing you this whole time, you are also going to realize something else: I’m delivering the news with attitude, as well. What can I say, it’s late…

Jeremy Renner and Noomi Rapace should probably start collecting bread crumbs now as it appears they’ll be playing Hansel and Gretel in the near future. Renner is in Venice promoting his new film, The Town, and he gave an interview where he spoke about upcoming projects. He mentioned production on Mission Impossible IV starts soon but then added that he’s also attached to Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. “I play him [Hansel],” Renner said, “and Noomi Rapace plays Gretel. They have become adults, are damned, and are going on witch hunting.”

Tommy Wirkola sat down with us to talk about his much buzzed about Nazi zombie opus.