Script For HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS 2 Is Done

The 2013 horror-action film Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters didn't very well at the North American box office. It only pulled in $55M here, but overseas is a whole other ball game. The international box office gave the film an additional $170M boost. That means the film grossed a whopping 74% from foreignors. Paramount quickly ordered a sequel. Tommy Wirkola, who wrote and directed the first film is also working on the sequel and he tells shocktillyoudrop.com the script for it is done and waiting for the studio to give it the green-light.

“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.”

Catching up with Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton), fifteen years after the traumatic incident involving a gingerbread house, the siblings have grown into vengeful bounty hunters dedicated to exterminating witches. Over the years, the siblings became expert hunters, famous for their proficiency at tracking and taking down their prey. Although still recovering from their ordeal, their work is relatively easy as for an unknown reason harmful spells and curses do not work well against them.

The Mayor of Augsburg recruits them to rid the town and nearby forests of an evil sorceress (Famke Janssen) who is planning to sacrifice many local children at the witches' gathering during the upcoming 'Blood Moon' night in two days time. To make things worse, the duo also has to deal with the brutal Sheriff Berringer (Peter Stormare) who has taken power in Augsburg and conducts a very indiscriminate witch-hunt of his own.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, directed by Tommy Wirkola, the cast includes Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Derek Mears and Peter Stormare.