Tim Burton Moves in with 'The Addams Family'
I guess it had to happen sooner or later. After adapting the work of Roald Dahl, Stephen Sondheim, and Lewis Carroll -- all twisted visionaries whose sensibilites mesh with his own -- Tim Burton will now tackle the creator who's perhaps his purest spiritual ancestor: Charles Addams. Burton will direct a stop-motion animated film adaptation of The Addams Family, the late cartoonist's series of macabre single-panel gags that ran for many years in The New Yorker. More info after the jump.
Deadline is reporting that Burton's film will not be based on other (and, in this writer's opinion, watered down) adaptations of Addams first family of fright, like the 1960s TV series or the 1990s films.
According to Deadline, "Illumination Entertainment, the Universal-based family film unit headed by Chris Meledandri, has acquired the underlying rights of the Addams drawings, once a staple of The New Yorker magazine... Meladandri will produce the film. Kevin Miserocchi of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation will be executive producer. A writer will be hired shortly. Burton, whose visual creations are currently on display at a MOMA exhibit that opened last November, is expected to provide much of the visual look of the film himself."
That visual look is all fine and good, but I honestly think the film would benefit from having a capable, and active, stop-motion director at the helm. Burton's only feature-length animation directing credit is for The Corpse Bride, one of his lesser films. On Corpse Bride, there was little doubt the lion's share of the work was done by others, as Burton was working on other films during its long production (I remember he didn't even come to Comic-Con to promote it). And with Burton also working on Dark Shadows, an animated feature-length version of Frankenweenie, and several projects on which he'll serve as producer, well, his attention is likely to waver.
Henry Selick, on the other hand, is the finest stop-motion director in the country, having handled the directing chores on The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and last year's outstanding Coraline. Selick's not confirmed his next project, so he may have some time on his hands. And I'd love to see him bring his hands-on mastery of the medium to this project, not to mention a dry wit that would perfectly match Addams' own (I can already hear the histrionics if The Addams Family follows The Corpse Bride's lead). But that's a pipe dream. Ah well. At least this new film will introduce the original cartoons to be a new generation. Cartoons that defined what horror comedy could be.
- Under the Influence: Tim Burton
- SDCC 2009: We Talk 'Alice in Wonderland' with Tim Burton
- Watch Tim Burton's New J-Horror!
- 'Wonderland' Cast Talks Tim Burton and Lewis Carroll
- Tim Burton + Abraham Lincoln + Vampires!
- Exclusive: Tim Burton Interview!
- 4 Reasons to Get Excited for Burton & Depp's 'Dark Shadows'
- Burton's on Top of the Weekend Box Office
- SDCC 2009: Tim Burton in Wonderland
- 'Addams Family' Goes To Broadway
