The last time Warner Bros. remade a beloved cult classic revolving around a coven of mysterious women, the results didn’t go so well. Despite boasting the involvement of Robert Zemeckis, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, Anne Hathaway, Chris Rock, Octavia Spencer and Stanley Tucci on either side of the camera, The Witches is only remembered for the controversies that followed in its wake as opposed to the content of the movie.
Of course, everything that’s old will eventually become new again, so it’s little surprise that the same studio has announced a new version of The Witches of Eastwick. Based on the novel of the same name, the 1986 favorite played host to a raft of A-list talent including Mad Max director George Miller, legendary composer John Williams and lead roles for Academy Award winners Jack Nicholson, Cher and Susan Sarandon, as well as three-time nominee Michelle Pfeiffer.
The plot follows a trio of small town friends who each lost the man in their lives, before a mysterious stranger arrives on the scene and informs them that they’re actually witches, something they’d been completely oblivious to up until that point.
The remake will be written and directed by Swedish filmmaker Ninja Thyberg, who’s been making waves on the festival circuit with her debut feature Pleasure, which follows a young woman who leaves her native Sweden to travel to Los Angeles in the hopes of making it as a porn star. Reviews have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic across the board for what’s said to be a thoughtful and meditative drama that’s never sensationalized or exploitative, and it hasn’t taken long for Thyberg to catch the eye of a major studio and land a plum gig.
