Osgood Perkins, the son of PSYCHO star Anthony Perkins, got his directorial career started with the horror film THE BLACKCOAT'S DAUGHTER and continued working in the genre with his second feature, I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE. He has now set up his third film at Orion Pictures, and with it he'll be dealing with more horrific subject matter – this time he'll be telling the story of a pair of children who get abducted by a cannibalistic witch.
That is, of course, the story told in the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, and Perkins' new film will be titled GRETEL AND HANSEL.
Written by Rob Hayes, this project is said to be a faithful adaptation of the Grimm fairy tale aboutÂ
a pair of siblings kidnapped by a terrifying witch who lives in the surrounding woods.
GRETEL AND HANSEL is expected to start filming in Europe this fall. Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger of Automatik Entertainment are producing.
Perkins is also attached to direct the Paul Tremblay thriller A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, but it sounds like GRETEL AND HANSEL will be going into production first. Perkins' other genre credits include playing a young Norman Bates in PSYCHO II and co-writing the screenplay for THE GIRL IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS, which was executive produced by Wes Craven.
Hansel and Gretel is quite a twisted tale, so I'm looking forward to seeing what Perkins will do with it.
The image above is from a version of HANSEL AND GRETEL that was released by Cannon in 1987.