Ditch The Witch

When it comes to making movies, having a vision is one thing; having a well-written screenplay that expands on that vision is another. But the ability to pitch that project to producers, studios and people bankrolling movies... Well, that's a key skill right there. Luckily Norwegian filmmaker Tommy Wirkola, hot property after his horror-comedy Dead Snow (watch out for Nazi zombies!), had an ace up his sleeve when Hollywood came courting.

“I studied in Australia, at Bond University,” says the fresh-faced writer-director. “And we had a screenwriting class, part of which involved pitching – the teacher pretended to be a producer and you had to sell him your idea. So I told him this story about my favourite fairy tale as a kid, and what the characters in it would be like grown-up. And he said 'Tommy, don't ever speak of that idea again until you're in front of a real Hollywood producer. I guarantee you will sell it.'”

What do you know, that teacher was right. Because when Wirkola had his first meeting on his first day in Los Angeles, he pitched his idea about Hansel & Gretel – the young brother and sister abandoned in the woods and preyed upon by a hungry witch – reinvented as hard-bitten bounty hunters taking out the supernatural trash to Gary Sanchez Productions, the company founded by Will Ferrell and Anchorman director Adam McKay. And they snapped it up immediately.

Fast-forward a couple of years and Wirkola's Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, with Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton in the title roles, is hitting cinemas and doing not too badly at the box-office (it opened at number one in the US in its opening weekend). In the tradition of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, Wirkola likes to mix humour and horror. But with Hansel & Gretel, the filmmaker wanted to throw in a few thrills and spills as well. 

“Dead Snow was much more extreme – it had a lot of jokes and a lot of gore,” admits Wirkola, who was in Sydney last week with Renner and Arterton for the movie's Australian premiere. “But with Hansel & Gretel we decided we wanted it to be an action-adventure film first and foremost. Mixed with humour and gore, of course! It's always a tricky balance, though. Too much humour can take you out of the story, out of the world we've created. Here, we wanted the action to be the driving force.”

Wirkola also wanted the characters to have dimension and charisma, which made casting the title roles so important. After seeing his breakout performance in The Hurt Locker, he was keen to get Renner aboard, and the actor was quick to sign up after reading the script and especially seeing evocative concept art depicting the dark, dangerous world Hansel and Gretel travel through.

Gretel was a much sought-after part, according to producer Kevin Messick. “A lot of people responded to the fact that she was the brains of the outfit, she was an action hero and she didn't get tripped up by romance or whatever,” he says. “When we saw The Disappearance Of Alice Creed we thought Gemma was amazing, and she and Jeremy really clicked.”

“They only really trust each other,” Wirkola says of his main characters. “And it's something me and Gemma and Jeremy talked about a lot – there are very few calm moments in the film but when there are we want to show there is something special between these two. And while they might be cynical about the world they live in, they do have a heart.”