Sophia Lillis is remaining in the realm of horror.  After gaining wide recognition for her role as Beverly Marsh in ‘It: Chapter One’, Lillis will now headline Orion Pictures’ ‘Gretel and Hansel’, a horror retelling of the fable ‘Hansel and Gretel’ which just began filming in Dublin, Ireland.  The reason the names are flip-flopped in the title is because this time, Gretel will be the one in charge.

In the original, two younger children find themselves lost in the wilderness,only to stumble upon a life-size gingerbread house which belongs to a witch who captures them and tries to fatten them up before she eats them.  There may or may not be a gingerbread house in this version, but the titular pair will discover a dimensional nexus in the woods.

Here is the tag line supplied by Orion:

A long time ago in a distant fairytale countryside, a young girl leads her little brother into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.

Newcomer Sammy Leakey will portray Hansel.  Writer/director Osgood Perkins is tackling this version.  Perkins co-wrote the script with Rob Hayes (‘Chewing Gum’).  Charles Babalola (‘Black Mirror’) also stars as The Hunter, while Alice Krige (‘Star Trek: First Contact’) and Jessica DeGouw (‘Arrow’) portray a pair of witches that hope to eat the youngsters.

Lillis will return as young Beverly Marsh in ‘It: Chapter Two’, while Jessica Chastain will play the adult version.  That film opens on September 6, 2019.  She will also headline a slightly less frightening thriller, playing the titular detective in ‘Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase’.  While Chastain plays an older version of Lillis in ‘It: Chapter Two’, Lillis plays the younger version of another famous redhead, Amy Adams on the HBO series ‘Sharp Objects’.

The last adaptation of this classic tale was 2013’s ‘Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters’ starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, directed by Tommy Wirkola.  That film emulated the action style of ‘Van Helsing’ and was a disappointment at the box office.  Nevertheless, a sequel is reportedly in some stage of development, either as a movie or a TV series.

Source: Screen Rant