LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "X-Men" actress Famke Janssen has joined Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton in a "Hansel and Gretel" action comedy that depicts the fairy-tale pair as bounty hunters.
The Paramount project, "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters," picks up years after the siblings' childhood trauma at the gingerbread house. Janssen will play the leader of the witches.
Tommy Wirkola ("Dead Snow") is directing the film, which begins shooting in Berlin next month.
Janssen just wrapped her writing-directing debut, "Bringing Up Bobby," a drama that she also produced.
Paramount wants to get "Hansel and Gretel" moving forward to try and head off Fox's adaptation of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," which director Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted") will begin shooting in 3D this year for a June 2012 release. The literary adaptation concerns Lincoln's (fictional) efforts to keep the bloodsuckers from preying on slaves.