Filmmaker Tim Burton Reportedly Angling To Bring ‘The Addams Family’ Back To TV
Golden Globe-winning filmmaker Tim Burton could be making his live-action, small-screen debut with an iconic television property in the near future. According to Deadline‘s Justin Kroll, the veteran director of feature films like Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is currently negotiating to executive produce and direct episodes of an all-new iteration of The Addams Family.
Per the Thursday report, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, who previously developed and produced Smallville for Warner Bros., would act as head writers for the new series while also serving as showrunners and executive producers alongside Burton.
The Addams Family was originally created by cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938, first appearing as single-panel comics in The New Yorker. In 1964, ABC created a live-action television program based on the comics, which starred John Astin as Gomez Addams and Carolyn Jones as his wife, Morticia. The black comedy series chronicled the macabre, yet cheery couple and the rest of their family clashing culturally with the rest of polite society.
In the early 1990s, filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld revived the property with two heralded feature films, which boasted ensemble casts led by Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci. More recently, The Addams Family was adapted as an animated feature, which went on to earn more than $203 million at the international box office in 2019, per Box Office Mojo.
As shared previously by The Inquisitr, pop star Christina Aguilera recorded the song “Haunted Heart” for the movie’s soundtrack
An untitled sequel to the animated film is currently in production and slated for release in October of 2021.
Kroll noted that the new Addams Family series would take place in modern times and that its story would be told from the perspective of the Addams daughter, Wednesday, according to Deadline‘s sources. However, no official details about the proposed project have been confirmed, as of this writing.
The latest revival’s development has been financed by MGM TV, which controls the underlying rights to the intellectual property. According to Kroll, multiple buyers are currently bidding for rights to the program, including Netflix, which is reportedly at the top of the list in terms of potentially landing the show.
Although The Addams Family would mark Burton’s first foray into live-action television programming, he has been involved with small-screen projects previously. The 62-year-old also developed and executive produced an animated version of Beetlejuice, which was loosely based on his 1988 movie. The cartoon ran for four seasons, from 1989 to 1991.
