The Witches Reboot Scores a PG Rating

The original adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s The Witches back in 1990 seared itself into the minds of its impressionable young audiences with its creepy depictions of its titular foes, though its whimsical subject matter allowed it to earn a relatively tame rating, with the upcoming Anne Hathaway-starring reboot of the concept similarly earning itself a PG rating. The new film, which comes from director Robert Zemeckis, scores its rating for “scary images/moments, language, and thematic elements,” according to FilmRatings.com. Production on the endeavor wrapped last fall and, despite the excitement surrounding the endeavor, likely won’t be hitting theaters until sometimes in 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic has seen theaters around the world shutter their doors with no sure sign of when they’ll be back to being fully operational. The film’s original release date was October 16th.

The Witches tells the darkly humorous and heartwarming tale of a young orphaned boy (Jahzir Kadeem Bruno) who, in late 1967, goes to live with his loving Grandma (Octavia Spencer) in the rural Alabama town of Demopolis. The boy and his grandmother come across some deceptively glamorous but thoroughly diabolical witches, so Grandma wisely whisks our young hero away to an opulent seaside resort. Regrettably, they arrive at precisely the same time that the world’s Grand High Witch (Hathaway) has gathered her fellow cronies from around the globe — undercover — to carry out her nefarious plans.

Hathaway has some big shoes to fill, as Anjelica Huston played the Grand High Witch in the previous adaptation, but the actress hinted that there likely won’t be many comparisons between the two projects as the upcoming take will offer a new perspective on the concept.

“I think the stories will be the only thing that is familiar,” Hathaway shared with Variety. “I think everything else is totally from the mind of Robert Zemeckis and I’m really excited.”

In addition to the film changing its setting, moving away from the 1990 film’s European setting, this new take on the concept will reportedly be much closer to the source material than the previous incarnation. Zemeckis previously teased how he hopes to use culturally relevant themes of the locations and timeline.

“We’re going to set it in the Gothic South in the 1960s,” Zemeckis revealed to the French publication Allocine. “It’s an exciting way to put a sociological spin on this kind of witch story.”

Stay tuned for details on the new The Witches.

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