"Ed Wood" Writers Re-Team w/ Burton on New "Addams Family" Film

[JamesG]

Tim Burton Next 3D Animated Film? Da Da Da, Da, Snap Snap, The Addams Family
By MIKE FLEMING | Thursday March 18, 2010


EXCLUSIVE: Alice in Wonderland director Tim Burton has found a new 3D project. He will direct a stop-motion animated film based on Charles Addams' original ghoulish cartoon drawings of The Addams Family.

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.



Other than being inspired by the same source material, the animated feature is unrelated to previous incarnations of Addams’ work, the 60s TV series, the two `90s feature film comedies that Barry Sonnenfeld directed with Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston, or the Broadway musical opening this spring with Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth in the starring roles.


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.





Burton’s experience in animated film is extensive. He last directed Corpse Bride, and is making a feature version of Frankenweenie, the 1984 30-minute short film Burton made about a boy who reanimates his dead dog.

That reportedly got him tossed off the Disney lot for making a film too terrifying for a family audience, but the film has since become a cult favorite. Burton recently produced 9, as well as the delightful stop-motion animated The Nightmare Before Christmas, for which he wrote the story.



His intention is to go back to the litany of Addams illustrations that displayed a sharper wit than could be place into a 60s family TV series.

While there are many post-Green Zone articles speculating how Universal will pull itself out of an extended feature slump, Illumination's upcoming animated slate should be a big help in giving Universal a foothold in the 3D CG family entertainment market.


Meledandri left the top post at Fox Animation to form Illumination in 2007, and begins contributing to the Universal pipeline when the studio releases the Steve Carell-voiced Despicable Me on July 9.

That’s followed by the April 1, 2011 release of I Hop, with Russell Brand voicing the Easter Bunny, with the Ricky Gervais creation Flanimals coming later 2011. Right behind that is Where’s Waldo and Dr.Seuss’ The Lorax.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/tim-...medium=twitter

[FanofRetroTV]

This can be interesting, but I hope he does not turn it into a musical. That worked with the Nightmare before Christmas, but will not work in an addams family movie unless its the one song that did in the 1990 movie. You know when Fester and Gomz were thowing kives. That was good. But a musical would suck. Otherwies I like the idea.

[comedyfreak]

should be interesting.

[Steve Carras]

So now Universal owns BOTH families of monsters! The Addams and the Munsters. I'd rather that Tim Burton NOT do 3-D OR CGI.

[JamesG]

Producer Talks Black and White, Stop Motion Addams Family
Sunday, June 27, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


While Tim Burton works out what project he wants to do next, Producer Christopher Meledandri spoke a bit to Comingsoon about the 3-D animated version of Addams Family.

In the interview he reveals that they plan on shooting the film with stop motion and not computer animation. He also added that the project will be based on the original Charles Addams comics that ran in The New Yorker and not the subsequent television series or the film adaptations thereof.


It's also worth noting that they're considering releasing the film in black and white, which is pretty awesome if you ask me.




Here's the latest: "It's all very, very early, but we are developing with Tim Burton directing in mind," Meledandri explained,

"...We're just now at the story phase. Stuff has been written as though we are doing it in black and white, but that's not correct. It's not incorrect, but it's not correct. We haven't gotten to that point."

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/20713

[JamesG]

Ed Wood Writers Reteam with Burton on The Addams Family
Thursday, August 19, 2010
By: MrDisgusting


Tim Burton has reunited with his Ed Wood screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski on a pair of projects, one of which will be The Addams Family, the stop-motion animated film that Burton and Chris Meledandri are producing for Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures, reports Deadline.

Alexander and Karaszewski boarded the project when Meledandri bought the rights to the ghoulish, darkly humorous drawings that Charles Addams created for The New Yorker.

Those drawings also formed the basis for the toned down TV show and subsequent feature film comedies and Broadway musical.



Alexander and Karaszewski also penned 1408 and The People Vs. Larry Flynt.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21368