TheWitches Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you've been following my obsessive train of thought, you may have noticed I have been watching a lot of Clint Eastwood lately. I discovered this little gem sometime around Christmas while searching for something completely unrelated to him -- and I'm finally breaking down and posting it.

This is a segment from 1966 Italian arthouse film The Witches (Le Streghe), which was essentially a comeback showcase for Silvana Margano. It was barely distributed, and pretty much shelved, but occasionally pops up on television or at late night screenings. This segment features a baby-faced Clint Eastwood as the thing he would never play again -- a mild-mannered nerd getting his ass kicked by Batman. Just that part of the YouTube description was enough to make me watch it. Eastwood is bizarrely cute in it (keep your eyes out for the blink and you miss it moment of "nudity"), which leads me to a "What if?" scenario...

It never fails to amuse me whenever parents get all worked up about an occasional f-bomb or a flash of boob, but show 'em a story about child genocide peppered with mild misogyny and presto -- you've got a children's classic! Almost two years ago, it was announced that Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón would be taking on an update of Roald Dahl's The Witches, and it was originally reported that Cuarón was going to direct. Now, though, it seems like things have changed, and Empire has broken the news (in an interview with Cuarón) that Del Toro has not only finished the screenplay, but will also be taking the helm for the fantasy update.

Dahl's original story centered on a conspiracy of witches looking to rid the world of children (great bedtime story, huh?), and received the feature film treatment once before. But, that hasn't stopped the studio from going ahead with a brand new version of the dark children's tale, and by the sounds of it, there are going to be plenty of changes in Del Toro's update. Cuarón told Empire, "It won't be like the original Nicolas Roeg version, which was a beautiful film," because (and this is the very exciting part), Del Toro plans to "do it completely in stop-motion animation."

When Nicolas Roeg's version was released back in 1990, a few changes were made to make the story a little less disturbing for the kiddies (including a much lower body count). But for you purists out there, at least we can rely on the fact that at least Del Toro isn't afraid to play rough with kids on the big screen.

Sound off below, and tell us what you think about Del Toro's plan for the 'kiddie-killing' update...

Warner Brothers, it seems, just isn't happy with its original adaptations of Roald Dahl's books. First we were given a polarizing (I say dreadful) redo of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now it seems they want a different take on The Witches. Guillermo Del Toro is planning to write the script and may direct, while Alfonso Cuarón will produce. The book was first brought to the screen in 1990 by screenwriter Allan Scott and director Nicholas Roeg.

I've been meaning to see that first version for some time now, but despite my affection for Roeg's work, I have never felt a craving for the story. Now that I'm reaching the stage in my life where I'm growing old enough to appreciate the family films I couldn't warm up to as a cynical teen, though, I'm torn. Should I still check out the 1990 film or should I just wait for Del Toro's vision? The best argument for the former is that Roeg's film stars Anjelica Huston. Is there any other?

Anyway, why can't somebody just make a good movie out of The BFG?