Neil Gaiman has written his own version of the classic Grimm fairytale Hansel & Gretel. It hasn't even been published yet, but the feature film rights have already been acquired. They were picked up by Juliet Blake, who recently teamed up with Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey to produce the wonderful film The Hundred-Foot Journey.

The beautifully gloomy artwork you see here was done for the book by artist Lorenzo Mattotti, and it has been described as "a stunning book capturing the terror and longing found in the classic fairy tale: at once as familiar as a dream and as evocative as a nightmare".

I would love to see an animated film in this dark style of art, but the plan is to do it live-action, which is fine. Gaiman had this to say in a statement:

"I’m thrilled and delighted to be working with Juliet Blake to bring Hansel and Gretel to the world again, and to show people how much this story has to say to us. For me, retelling Hansel and Gretel was a way of telling an old tale in a way that made it immediate and true, and about us, now. It reminds us of how paper thin civilization really is. It’s about hunger, and about families."

The book will be published in the U.S. by Toon Books on October 28th, and in the UK by Bloomsbury on December 11th. I'm a fan of Gaiman's work so I'll definitely be picking up a copy, and, of course, I'm looking forward to seeing how this movie turns out!