Variety is reporting that Octavia Spencer (Green Book) is in talks to join fellow Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway (Serenity) in the upcoming Roald Dahl adaptation The Witches from director Robert Zemeckis (Welcome to Marwen), while newcomers Jahzir Bruno and Codie-Lei Eastick are also in negotiations.
The Witches follows a young boy who stumbles upon a coven of child-hating witches, led by Hathaway’s Grand High Witch. Bruno will portray the young boy, with Spencer as his grandmother and Eastick as another of the children who have a run in with the witches.
The new movie is said to be more faithful to Dahl’s novel than the beloved 1990 movie, although it will shift the setting from the UK to Alabama in the late 1960s.
Spencer was last seen in screen in the Paramount comedy Instant Family, while her upcoming big screen roles include the Blumhouse horror thriller Ma, fantasy comedy The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, and the Disney-Pixar animation Onward.
