FILM :
HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS 3D
Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures present a Gary Sanchez Productions' Action, Fantasy, Horror directed by
Tommy Wirkola starring
Jeremy Renner "Hansel",
Gemma Arterton "Gretel,
Famke Janssen "Muriel",
Peter Stormare "Sheriff Berringer",
Thomas Mann "Ben",
Derek Mears "Edward",
Pihla Vitala "Mina". Writers:
Tommy Wirkola and Dante Harper. Producers: Will Ferrell, Beau Flynn, Chris Henchy, Adam McKay,
Kevin J. Messick. Executive Producer: Denis L. Stewart. Director of Photography: Michael Bonvillain. Production Designer:
Stephen Scott. Costume Designer: Marlene Stewart. Editor: Jim Page. Art Directors: Stephan O. Gessler, Anja Müller. Set Decorator: Bernhard Henrich. Visual Effects Supervisor:
Jon Farhat. Creature and Makeup Effects Designer:
Michael Elizalde. Composer: Atli Örvarsson. RELEASE DATES: 6 MARCH 2013 (FRANCE) / 25 JANUARY 2013 (USA)
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SYNOPSIS After getting a taste for blood as children, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) have become the ultimate vigilantes, hell bent on retribution. Now, unbeknownst to them, Hansel and Gretel have become the hunted, and must face an evil far greater than witches...their past. *** Liés par le sang, Hansel et Gretel ont aujourd’hui soif de vengeance, et ils s’en donnent à cœur joie. Pourtant, sans le savoir, ils sont désormais victimes d’une menace bien plus grande que leurs ennemis : leur passé. HANSEL & GRETEL’S WORLD: THE PRODUCTION One of the most thrilling challenges for Tommy Wirkola was getting the chance to create a whole new world for Hansel & Gretel to live in – and in so doing, let his audacious visual imagination run truly wild. He only had one inviolable rule: “It all had to look and feel like a fairy-tale,” says Wirkola. “We needed those rich, saturated colors, the kind of colors that grab you -- the green of the forest, the red of the blood and the blackness of the witches.” All the standard details of fairy tale lore were re-engineered to meld with modern action and effects. “Everything was a distinct choice,” notes producer Kevin Messick. “Each element of the Hansel & Gretel tale was re-invented by Tommy and his team.” To up the adrenaline another notch, Wirkola made the decision to shoot the film utilizing 3D. “When you’re make a movie like this, you really want audiences to be completely immersed in it and 3D is all about that,” Wirkola explains. “It widens everything to the point that you feel like you are in this fairy tale land.” A team headed by special effects make-up artist Mike Elizalde, founder of the renowned make-up effects company Spectral Motion (Hell Boy, Hell Boy 2), designed Edward the troll and took on bringing the witches to life -- then Wirkola brought in the Berlin-based special effects makeup studio Twilight Creations (Inglorious Basterds, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) to design the Stone Circle witches. But the real fun was in watching the actors take these roles into action sequences. “Each of the performers suddenly became their characters,” says Elizalde. “The actors brought that jolt of electricity.” Another essential for the witches in Wirkola’s vision was that they had to really, truly fly -- furiously fast – in visceral chase scenes. “I always felt the witches had to have brooms, but I wanted to use them in a new way, so that they are speedsters,” says Wirkola, who worked with visual effects supervisor Jon Farhart, utilizing wires and green screens to launch the witches through the forest. Helping to turn more of Wirkola’s imaginings into reality was production designer Stephen Scott -- who also worked on Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy and Hellboy 2. Like Wirkola, Scott was mesmerized by the chance to create sets ranging from cottages to caves and underground chambers. “Stephen has one of the richest imaginations of anyone I’ve ever met,” comments producer Messick. Heading for Germany – to the very landscapes that first inspired Hansel & Gretel – Scott was especially thrilled to create sets in one of the haunting natural environments on earth: dark, virgin forests . . . the kind with full of twisting branches that reach out as if to grab you,. “We founds forests with a real medieval feel -- and also with trees that have a scary side,” Scott explains. In addition to the forest sets, Scott and his team had fun building Muriel’s lair (which glows with the dying embers of children’s souls), the mouth-watering but malevolent Candy House and the set they called “Stone Circle,” scene of the film’s climactic showdown. One of Wirkola’s favorite sets became the Candy House. “Everyone has their own idea of what that house might look like,” notes the director. “But the important thing was that it needed to look so tempting that a couple of young kids would ignore their skepticism.” “We see it first in the moonlight,” continues Scott, “with all its gooey, melting chocolate, gingerbread on the walls and sparkling sweeties. But it also has a hidden side because inside is the Candy Witch, and the house and the witch are one and the same: an evil and nasty piece of work.” Perhaps the most ambitious set of all is the Stone Circle, where a daring rescue unfolds amidst bloodthirsty witches. The scene involved hundreds of cast and crew, multiple cameras, cranes and buckets of blood. “I love a big action finale,” says Wirkola. “It’s a fun mix of witches, machine guns and a personal battle.” Creative fun also fueled the film’s costumes, designed by Marlene Stewart (Terminator 2), who designed and created nearly 100 costumes from scratch. She wanted Hansel & Gretel to look like they belonged in a fairy tale world but also look like they could be badass bounty hunters of any era. Their costumes might be made from traditional leather and linen – but there’s nothing antique about them. “We turned all the traditions around by giving them a tough edge,” Stewart explains. The actors were grateful for the inspiration the costumes provided. Says Gemma Arterton: “Everybody went crazy for her costumes. My costume was both a little tomboyish and very sexy. She did such a great job; honestly, I would wear that costume down the street, I loved it so much.” While their clothing is timeless, Hansel & Gretel’s witch-hunting arsenal is as deadly as any from our times. Simon Boucherie, a weapons designer from Berlin collaborated with Wirkola on all the weaponry in the film. For the weaponry, Wirkola had a kind of “steampunk” vision of retro-futuristic guns and bows that draw on century-old styles yet feature thoroughly modern firepower. “We had this rule that all the weapons should look like they hand-made them,” he explains. “We had a lot of fun coming up with crazy designs.” Wirkola also made brother and sister’s choices of weaponry personal. “Hansel is the guy who bursts in and tries to take everybody out with a shotgun, but Gretel is more about subtle precision, so she has a double-barrel crossbow that speaks to her character, yet does what she needs.” From the weapons to the effects to the action, that irreverent mix of the fantastical and the fearsome became the guiding principle for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Tommy Wirkola summarizes: “The film has a lot of action, but it was equally important that it have an adventurous feel and a fun feeling to it. It’s still a fairy tale, but a very intense one.” ©2012 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved. HANSEL & GRETEL WITCH HUNTERS 3D Left to right: Gemma Arterton plays Gretel, Jeremy Renner plays Hansel and Famke Janssen plays Muriel in HANSEL & GRETEL WITCH HUNTERS, from Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Photo Credit: David Appleby. © 2012 Paramount Pictures Corporation and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.
RED BAND TRAILER (VOSTFR) TRAILER G (VOSTFR) HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS 3D Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer present a Gary Sanchez Productions directed by Tommy Wirkola.
ABOUT THE CAST: Since graduating from RADA in 2007, GEMMA ARTERTON (Gretel) has already garnered an Empire Film award for ‘Best Newcomer’ and a nomination for the ‘Orange Rising Star’ award at the 2011 BAFTAs. Gemma has recently completed filming Brad Furman’s thriller ‘Runner, Runner’ in Puerto Rico in the leading female role of ‘Rebecca Shafran’ alongside Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake. Gemma will next be seen in the lead role of ‘Gretel’ opposite Jeremy Renner in ‘Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters’, written and directed by Tommy Wirkola, due for release in January 2013. Gemma will also soon star in the London-set comedic drama ‘Song for Marion’ alongside Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp, as well as the highly anticipated ‘Byzantium’ directed by Neil Jordan and written by Moira Buffini, in which Gemma is set to star as vampire ‘Clara’ opposite Saoirse Ronan. Gemma has recently been announced as part of the cast for 2013’s Jeff Buckley biopic ‘Mystery White Boy’ and comedy thriller ‘The Wright Girls’ directed by Andy Fickman. Last year, Gemma voiced the character of ‘Shelley’ in ‘A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventure’, an animated feature including voices from John Hurt and Dominic Cooper. She also starred in the title role in ‘Tamara Drewe’ directed by award-winning director Stephen Frears, opposite Dominic Cooper, Luke Evans and Tamsin Greig. In 2010, Gemma appeared alongside Sam Worthington as the goddess ‘Io’ in Louis Letterier’s remake of the 1981 epic ‘Clash of the Titans’, based on the classic Greek myth. She also played the lead female role of ‘Princess Tamina’ in Disney’s ‘Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’, directed by Mike Newell, starring alongside Hollywood stars Jake Gyllenhall and Sir Ben Kingsley. In 2009, Gemma starred in J Blakeson’s independent film ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’, a thrilling tale of kidnapping and intrigue in which she played the title role alongside Martin Compston & Eddie Marsan. Amongst her other film credits, Gemma starred in Richard Curtis’ ‘The Boat that Rocked’, a period comedy set in the 1960's co-starring a host of greats such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy and Emma Thompson and in 2008, Gemma starred as iconic Bond Girl ‘Strawberry Fields’ in ‘Quantum of Solace’, directed by Marc Forster and starring Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench. Her other film credits include Guy Ritchie’s gangster film ‘RocknRolla’, ‘Three and Out’, directed by Jonathan Gershfield, and the classic remake of ‘St Trinian’s’ directed by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson for which she was nominated for an Empire Award and won a National Movie Award. For television, Gemma’s heartrending portrayal of the heroic ‘Tess’ in the BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ co-starring Eddie Redmayne and Hans Matheson earned her rave reviews and numerous award nominations. She also played the role of ‘Elizabeth Bennett’ in ITV’s costume drama ‘Lost in Austen’. In 2007 she also starred in the BBC’s ‘Capturing Mary’, directed by Stephen Poliakoff, in which she played the character ‘Liza’ alongside Dame Maggie Smith, David Walliams and Ruth Wilson. For theatre, in early 2010 Gemma made her West End debut at the Garrick alongside Rupert Friend and Tamsin Greig, in Douglas Carter Beane’s Award-winning Broadway comedy ‘The Little Dog Laughed’. She also returned to the stage in November 2010 at the internationally renowned Almeida Theatre in Henrik Ibsen’s ‘The Master Builder’, for which, Gemma’s performance earned her critical acclaim for her ‘spellbinding’ turn as ‘Hilda Wangel’. Her previous theatre credits include the role of ‘Rosaline’ at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in ‘Love Labour’s Lost’ directed by Dominic Dromgoole. After gaining an award for ‘Best Supporting Actress for Kent’, she gained a full scholarship to RADA where she took lead roles in productions such as ‘An Ideal Husband’, ‘Titus Andronicus’ and ‘The Beggar’s Opera’.
TRAILER #2 (VO) SELECTED B-ROLL Part #1 (VO) SELECTED B-ROLL Part #2 (VO) TV SPOT #1 "Legendary Girl" (VO) TV SPOT #2 "Vengeance" (VO) TV SPOT #3 "Evil" (VO) SOUND BITES #1 Jeremy Renner "Hansel" (VO) SOUND BITES #2 Gemma Arterton "Gretel" Part #1 (VO) SOUND BITES #3 Gemma Arterton "Gretel" Part #2 (VO) SOUND BITES #4 Famke Janssen "Muriel" (VO) SOUND BITES #5 Peter Stormare "Sheriff Berringer" (VO) SOUND BITES #6 Thomas Mann "Ben" (VO) SOUND BITES #7 Derek Mears "Edward" (VO) SOUND BITES #8 Pihla Vitala "Mina" (VO) SOUND BITES #9 Jon Farhat (Visual Effects Supervisor) (VO) SOUND BITES #10 Stephen Scott (Production Designer) (VO) SOUND BITES #11 Michael Elizalde (Creature and Makeup Effects Designer) (VO) SOUND BITES #12 Kevin Messick (Producer) Part #1 (VO) SOUND BITES #13 Kevin Messick (Producer) Part #2 (VO) SOUND BITES #14 Tommy Wirkola (Writer/Director) Part #1 (VO) SOUND BITES #15 Tommy Wirkola (Writer/Director) Part #2 (VO) INTERVIEWS #1 Famke Janssen (VO) INTERVIEWS #2 Jeremy Renner & Gemma Arterton (VO) INTERVIEWS #3 Tommy Wirkola (VO) ©2012 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
™ and © 2012 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Gemma Arterton is Gretel in HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS 3D, from Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures.
PREMIERE #1 Arrival B-Roll (VO) PREMIERE #2 Famke Janssen "Muriel" (VO) PREMIERE #3 Gemma Arterton "Gretel" (VO) PREMIERE #4 Jeremy Renner "Hansel" (VO) PREMIERE #5 Kevin Messick (Producer) (VO) PREMIERE #6 Peter Stormare "Sheriff Berringer" (VO) PREMIERE #7 Pihla Vitala "Mina" (VO) PREMIERE #8 Tommy Wirkola (Director) (VO) FILM CLIP #1 "Meet Hansel and Gretel" (VOSTFR) FILM CLIP #2 "Don´t eat the F-ing candy" (VOSTFR) FILM CLIP #3 "Invitation" (VOSTFR) FILM CLIP #4 "Desert Witch" (VOSTFR) FILM CLIP #5 "That was awesome" (VOSTFR) FILM CLIP #6 "I like your toys" (VOSTFR) FILM CLIP #7 "What are you doing?" (VOSTFR) FEATURETTE #1 "Explicit" (VOSTFR)