The Witches remake (2020) UK release date, age rating, and parents guide

The legacy of Roald Dahl’s work is getting another big-screen shot in the long, crooked finger with The Witches remake UK release date planned for later in 2020. Legendary film-maker Robert Zemeckis is at the helm building on his incredible list of credits that include Back To The Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forest Gump, so it should be an impressive adaptation of the 1990 dark fantasy.

It comes out just a few years after the live-action remake of The BFG in 2016, which was yet another hit for Dahl’s work on the big screen. Before that there was the remake of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory in 2005 with Johnny Depp in the lead role, following on from the 1971 original. The BFG cartoon film came out in 1989 and the first adaptation for The Witches was released in 1990, reiterating the enduring impact of the British writer.

If you’re not familiar with the story, it essentially involves a kid and his gran who discover a hideous plot by the Grand High Witch and her international army of witches. Set in a hotel where a great conference of witches is taking place, it becomes the battle ground for the future of children, but when the boy gets transformed into a mouse the odds seam stacked against him and his grandmother.

Cast

The full cast list hasn’t been announced as of yet, but a few big names have been confirmed with Anne Hathaway (Colossal) leading the dark forces as the Grand High Witch, picking up the reigns from Anjelica Huston, who made the role iconic in the 1990 adaptation. Octavia Spencer (Onward) has also been cast in The Witches as Grandma. 2020 is going to be a big year for the Academy Award-winning actress with voice roles in both Dolittle and Onward, in addition to the Roald Dahl remake.

The cast also includes Stanley Tucci (Transformers: The Last Knight) and Chris Rock (Empire), so it’s starting to look like it’s going to be an impressive release. Newcomer Jahzir Kadeem Bruno (Atlanta) stars as the orphaned boy at the heart of the story and Codie-Lei Eastick will play his young mouse-eared compadre.

There are bound to be more cast reveals, when the trailer for the film arrives, especially with the rest of the coven cronies to be announced, so we’ll keep you posted.

The Witches (2020) UK release date

The 2020 remake adaptation of The Witches UK release date is planned for Friday the 16th October, so it will get a late-autumn/early winter run on the big screen. At the moment, there isn’t anything big out on the same weekend, but it will come out a week after the Death On The Nike, the sequel to Murder On The Orient Express starring Kenneth Branagh.

You can follow us on Twitter to see more news and updates on upcoming films, and you can see more on the movie in the built up to the release with the Warner Bros. Pictures Twitter page at https://twitter.com/wbpictures.

Age rating and parents guide

The age rating for The Witches (2020) remake will be announced in the UK by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) a few weeks before the release date. There’s no trailer to go on, but as a dark fantasy it could push up the age rating a little depending on the direction the film takes. Robert Zameckis is well-known for PG films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Back To The Future, but then he also directed horror thriller What Lies Beneath, so there’s definitely the potential for a few scares, especially with the darker content of the Roald Dahl story.

There will be more to go on when the trailer arrives, but for context, the 1990 adaptation had an age rating of PG with parents guide notes of mild scary scenes and mild language. However, thinking back they seemed a lot scarier than mild the first time around, so this isn’t one for younger kids. The screenplay has been written by Guillermo Del Toro with Zameckis and Kenya Barris, so there’s even more potential for a freaky reimagining of Roald Dahl’s take if scary witches.

We’ll update the details above with more on the film, including the age rating and parents guide, when the trailer comes out in the first instance before the BBFC announces the certification. You can check out our movie news section to see other film releases in 2020, or see the official webpage on the Warner Bros. Pictures website at https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/witches-2020/.