These days it’s hard to think of Vin Diesel in anything else aside from something Fast and Furious or on the Riddick end of the cinematic spectrum, but the man is gearing up to star and executive produce another fantasy-inspired endeavor in THE LAST WITCH HUNTER. The plot, which revolves around the last remaining witch hunter (imagine that) battling against an uprising of witches in modern day New York, will see the titular character (Diesel) team up with a female witch to stop an uber-witch from doing all sorts of bad, witch-y things.
So far the project doesn’t seem to promising anything special, save for its actors. Vin Diesel certainly doesn’t need the money at this point, so I’d like to think he chooses his projects these days out of passion. As for the witch he will be teaming up with, that role will be played by Rose Leslie. More recently she could be seen being kind of a witch as Ygritte in HBO’s Game of Thrones. She also rocked the hell out of season one of Downton Abbey, which if I had any shame, I might be afraid to admit I was a fan of. Rose is proving a force to be reckoned with though, and I hope her transition to feature-films doesn’t end with THE LAST WITCH HUNTER.
The film is to be directed by Breck Eisner, who previously directed THE CRAZIES (2010) and SAHARA. The man seems more than adequate in delivering a good time, although both of those flicks seemed to have missed the mark. Vin Diesel has amassed a ridiculously large fanbase, so it’s hard to imagine any project he works on now would fall by the wayside, but we’ll see. I was surprised that HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS was actually pretty fun, so maybe we’ll get something along the lines of that.
Production on THE LAST WITCH HUNTER, starring Vin Diesel and Rose Leslie, begins this August.