Julie Engelbrecht Cast as Villain in The Last Witch Hunter

The Last Witch Hunter has been cooking in the cauldron for years and now it’s really starting to heat up. Last month we reported that Elijah Wood had joined a cast that includes Michael Caine, Vin Diesel, and Rose Leslie, and now German actress Julie Engelbrecht has been cast as the film's villain, the Witch Queen.

Deadline reports the signing of Julie Engelbrecht to the Lionsgate/Summit fantasy action film that follows a witch hunter who is the last of his kind (Diesel) and spends his time hunting witches in New York City. But when the Witch Queen (Engelbrecht) seeks to acquire a relic that will befall a plague upon humanity, the witch hunter must team with another witch (Leslie) in order to save mankind from imminent doom. The Last Witch Hunter marks Julie Engelbrecht's (Before The Fall, Rasmus and Johanna, The Red Baron) American movie debut.

The Last Witch Hunter will be directed by Breck Eisner (The Crazies remake) and is currently in pre-production. Originally pitched and written by Cory Goodman (Priest), the script was re-worked by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama (Gods of Egypt) before recently getting a polish from Melisa Wallack (Dallas Buyers Club). D. W. Harper also worked on the screenplay. We’ll keep Daily Dead readers updated as The Last Witch Hunter moves closer to shooting.

The Last Witch Hunter stars Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood, Julie Engelbrecht, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, and Michael Caine.

“…[The Last Witch Hunter] sees a semi-immortal witch hunter (Diesel) wandering the streets of modern New York City forced to partner with his natural enemy, a female witch. The two must stop a villainous witch queen from obtaining a relic and unleashing plague upon humanity.”