Gemma Arterton Joins Jeremy Renner in 'Hansel and Gretel'

Gemma Arteton has secured the female lead alongside Jeremy Renner in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, a dark, action movie re-imagining of the German fairy tale.

Arterton and Renner will play the brother and sister duo who is traumatized by their encounter with a cannibalistic witch as children into becoming witch bounty hunters as adults.

Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) is directing the Paramount picture, which starts shooting in March, according to theHollywood Reporter, meaning Renner is fitting another film into his tight schedule of action-oriented fare. His Hansel role will be wedged between playing Hawkeye inThe Avengersand a lead in Paramount’sMission: Impossible– Ghost Protocol.

Adam McKay and Will Ferrell are producing the R-rated horror/action movie under their Gary Sanchez banner. D.W. Harper wrote the screenplay (as well as the fantastic, sci-fi script All You Need is Kill, which landed third on theBlack Listlast month).

The British actress reportedly won the role over Dianne Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), fellow bond girl Eva Green, and Swedish import Noomi Rapace.

THR says Paramount is hoping to have their supernatural hunter film ready before Fox’sAbraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, a horror piece of revisionist history that tells of the President’s secret life as an axe-wielding slayer of the undead. That script, written by Seth Grahame-Smith from his own novel, is actually quite good, despite it’s far-fetched premise.

H&G and Lincoln’s late-night adventures are just two of Hollywood’s push to retell familiar fairy tales with a darker, supernatural twist. There are at leastthreeseparate Snow White movies in the works each with its own additions, like the werewolves and trolls of Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman.

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