If you were to ask an average film or TV fan who should be the director to bring back a live-action series remake of “The Addams Family,” you’d likely hear the name Tim Burton from just about everyone. Burton is a filmmaker that not only has been hugely influenced by “The Addams Family,” but his projects feel like they could very well exist in the same universe with Gomez and Morticia. Well, the stars have apparently aligned, and now, Burton is going to spearhead the latest attempt to bring “The Addams Family” to TV screens.
According to Deadline, Burton is signed on to executive produce and possibly direct all the episodes of a new, live-action “The Addams Family” TV series. The show is expected to be written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the men behind “Smallville.” But this isn’t going to be your typical ‘Addams Family.’ The report claims that the series will be told from the perspective of Wednesday Addams and will be set in the modern-day, with the young girl and her family dealing with a world in 2020 that is very different than the world that we last saw them in.
For those unaware, “The Addams Family” is a popular TV and film franchise that features the everyday exploits of a family of creepy, spooky, possibly supernatural people that don’t fit in with the rest of the world and are more interested in murder and mayhem than traditional family values.
MGM TV is the studio behind the new series and is currently taking bids from networks and streaming services for the Tim Burton series. Deadline says that, as of now, Netflix is leading the charge, hoping to land Burton’s take on “The Addams Family.” And to be honest, Netflix does seem like a pretty good home for the series, as the platform has proven itself to be perfectly capable of bringing stories of macabre teens dealing with a modern world, as it did with the recent “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.”
“The Addams Family” marks the first live-action TV series that will be directed by Burton since the ‘80s when he tackled episodes of “Faerie Tale Theatre” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” Most recently, he released the Disney live-action remake of “Dumbo,” which wasn’t the critical and financial darling that the studio was hoping for, especially compared to the likes of “Aladdin” and “The Lion King.”
It’s unclear when production might begin on “The Addams Family,” but with Burton involved, we can probably bet whoever will land this series will want this in front of cameras ASAP.
Here are some clips from the various versions of “The Addams Family” from TV and film over the years: