Tim Burton, fresh off of his update to Alice in Wonderland, is now reportedly setting his sights on an revamp of The Addams Family. I tried to find solid information on Burton’s webpage ( http://www.timburton.com/ ) , but it seems to only contain information about his upcoming book of illustrations and art for his past projects. Looks like a solid edition to the coffee table of any home, yet not what I was looking for. So this report comes from a lot of internet speculation.
The buzz is that the new film will be a stop motion production and in 3D. The main source material is expected to be the original New Yorker one panel cartoons produced by Charles Addams. Although, I suspect that it will still draw heavily from the original television series from the 1960s and the films released in the 1990s, as the original cartoons provided very little context or characterization. There were also several animated series, and a second live action series dubbed “The New Addams Family.” I somehow doubt that these adaptations will have anything to do with the proposed new film.
The Addams Family has also been adapted as a Broadway musical which opened this year ( http://www.theaddamsfamilymusical.com ), currently staring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth (I love Bebe Neuwirth, just wanted to say). There is no indication that I could find as of now if this adaptation will have anything to do with the film. I think probably not.
Stop motion animation is seen fairly infrequently now a days. Burton has had his hand in two creepy stop motion films before, holiday classic The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the less acclaimed but still well reviewed Corpse Bride.
I’m honestly not a huge fan of Tim Burton’s lately. The last film of his that I really enjoyed was Big Fish. I liked 9 and Sweeny Todd well enough but they did not stick with me like Nightmare Before Christmas or Beetlejuice. But, if someone is going to update the Addams Family I think he is the right person for it. He has the right sense of creepiness and silliness that I think the film will need. Also, the overall style and tone of the series lends it self to his aesthetic choices.
I think he would do well to choose a leading man that is not Johnny Depp and leading woman that is not Helena Bonham Carter, otherwise the film could just be a reprise of Corpse Bride.
With all adaptations I am apprehensive, but I think this has potential. And clearly, The Addams Family has been adapted for film successfully in the past, so I can not say that it won’t work. I am interested to see where this project goes.
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I actually liked 9 quite a lot, but it's worth noting that Burton was only one of eight producers on the film and did not write or direct it. As far as I'm concerned, he still has yet to redeem himself after his unequivocally awful (and outright nonsensical) remake of Planet of the Apes.
ReplyDeleteIf you can find it, some museum (possibly the MoMa) recently had a Burton exhibit that featured a timeline of everything he's worked on in his career. The interesting thing about it was not the films that he made(of which there were many) but the films that he didn't make (of which there were more than twice as many.) It just goes to show that it's extremely difficult to succeed in this world if you don't allow for the possibility of failure.