Tim Burton is looking at pop culture’s most creepy, kooky, and ooky family for his first major live-action television series. According to a new report, Burton has entered negotiations to executive produce and possibly direct every episode of a planned TV series reboot of The Addams Family. Smallville developers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are also on board to serve as head writers and showrunners. If the project is a go, they will also be exec producing alongside Burton.
The project is in the works at MGM TV, who financed the development of the reboot series. It’s not yet clear where the show could end up, as multiple buyers are putting in their bids now for the rights. Reportedly, Netflix is leading the pack and appears to be the most likely home for the new Addams Family, but no deal has yet been signed with any company. The series is also said to be “set in present times and be from the perspective of Wednesday Addams and what the world would look like to her in 2020.”
It would be easy to argue that Tim Burton is the perfect filmmaker to spearhead a reboot of The Addams Family. He is particularly talented in creating stories with dark comedic themes, as we’ve seen with his popular movies like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands. Burton also has experience in adapting classic dark sitcoms, as he previously turned the similar series Dark Shadows into a theatrical movie. Putting him in charge of a new take on The Addams Family has the potential for some great results.
Originally a comic strip, The Addams Family was first developed for the screen as a TV series in the ’60s. The sitcom followed the lives of the members of the kooky Addams family – parents Gomez and Morticia, children Pugsley and Wednesday, Grandmama, butler Lurch, furry Cousin Itt, and even a pet hand called Thing. John Astin and Carolyn Jones starred on the classic series as Gomez and Morticia.
In the early ’90s, The Addams Family was reborn with its first live-action movie, featuring Raul Julia as Gomez and Anjelica Huston as Morticia. A beloved cult classic, the movie was given a sequel, Addams Family Values, which also has a cult following. There have been other live-action adaptations made in the years since, including another live-action movie with Tim Curry as Gomez. A live-action TV series reboot called The New Addams Family also aired for a single season between 1998 and 1999.
More recently, The Addams Family has returned to the big screen, although in animated form. Last year, an animated movie reboot was released in theaters to great financial success. Its profits led to MGM putting a sequel on the fast track, and The Addams Family 2 is scheduled to release in theaters in October 2021. The animated cast includes Oscar Isaac as Gomez and Charlize Theron as Morticia with Chloe Grace Moretz voicing Wednesday. We’ll see if Burton’s planned live-action reboot will also be met with success.
This news was first reported by Deadline.
