The Addams Family just continues to be creepy, kooky, and fertile ground to revisit. According to Deadline, filmmaker Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure) is developing a new live-action TV series version of the popular satirical black-comedy series about a wealthy family who delight in the macabre.
Burton is reportedly seeking to executive produce and direct all episodes of his take on the long-running franchise that dates all the way back to 1938 cartoons created by Charles Addams. Incredibly, the family has come back in new versions for new adventures steadily since the ’30s–the most recent being 2019’s CGI film simply titled The Addams Family. (There is a sequel in the pipeline due for 2021.)
For Burton’s version which is still light on details, Smallville developers and executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are reportedly attached to serve as head writers and also co-showrunners along with Burton. Netflix is among multiple buyers bidding to be the home for the series, and is also among the frontrunners.
Burton directing an Addams Family project seems not only natural but surprisingly overdue. Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Corpse Bride are among Burton’s strange and dark classic films he’s come to be known for, and he’s also previously demonstrated an interest in reviving dark comedies from yesteryear: 2012’s Dark Shadows was a horror comedy based on the popular ’70s soap opera, Dark Shadows. Beyond that, he also had experience adapting Beetlejuice to a four-season cult-classic animated series that likely even just by mentioning will invoke all kinds of nostalgia for readers.
The only way this could be construed as bad news is it might possible mean the long-rumored Beetlejuice sequel will have to wait on the shelf a little longer.
