For many horror fans, Hocus Pocus is synonymous with the Halloween season, with its tale of a talking cat, a lovable zombie, and three witches out for revenge becoming a permanent fixture in many autumn movie marathons over the years. Now, 24 years after its initial release, Hocus Pocus is potentially being reimagined as a TV movie on the Disney Channel.

Deadline reports the news of the potential Hocus Pocus "reimagining," revealing that Scarlett Lacey (The Royals) is working on a script with David Kirschner on board as an executive producer. Kirschner, a producer of the original film, also helped come up with the story of Hocus Pocus, as he told a similar tale to his children as a bedtime story. Kenny Ortega, who directed the original film from a screenplay by Mick Garris and Neil Cuthbert, is not working on the reimagining.

The 1993 film featured a stellar cast whose chemistry is a big reason why the film has become even more popular over the last quarter century. Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker played the Sanderson Sisters, who, with help from their one-eyed spell book, seek the souls of children on Halloween night in Salem, while Doug Jones played Billy Butcherson, quite possibly the most beloved zombie to appear on the big screen since Bub in George A. Romero's Day of the Dead.

Omri Katz and Vinessa Shaw portrayed high school classmates with a blossoming crush, and Thora Birch played Dani, the hilariously blunt little sister of Katz's character. Jason Marsden, meanwhile, voiced Thackery Binx, a former human transformed into a talking feline by the Sanderson Sisters back in the 1600s. It's not yet known if any of the cast members will return in the new movie should it move forward, but Midler, Najimy, and Parker have all expressed interest in reprising their iconic roles in recent years.

It remains to be seen if this new Hocus Pocus movie rises from the cauldron, but we'll be sure to keep Daily Dead readers updated as more details are divulged. In the meantime, let us know what you think below while I try to work up the courage to get "Ice" shaved into the back of my head.

Source: Deadline
  • Derek Anderson
    About the Author - Derek Anderson

    Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.

    When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.