Stop-motion animated ADDAMS FAMILY movie has Tim Burton ‘in mind’ to direct
Christopher Meledandri reveals that the stop-animated Addams Family movie is still moving forward, with Tim Burton 'in mind' to direct. According to Meledandris interview with Coming Soon, they are still at the story phase of development, and the screenplay will be based on the Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons rather than the 1960s television series or the Barry Levinson films. Even more exciting, Meledandri reports that the screenplay is 'written as though we are doing it in black and white' which could give the film the same look as Burtons early animated short film, Vincent. Part of me feels like this could be a good chance for Burton to scale back and make a film closer to his classic period of filmmaking in the 80s and 90s, but there is one thing that makes me cringe about the concept: 3D!!. It seems that every project Burton directs must be in 3D, including the animated feature-length adaptation of his own short film, Frankenweenie. Here is my problem with 3D in a film like Addams Family; if you are planning to make a film in black-and-white in order to stay true to the style of the original comic, it makes no sense to try and be cutting edge in the presentation. More than anything else, Burton seems better when he has some restrictions on his vision, and Im afraid that he will get too entangled in the spectacle. Burton has a history of making films that look great and the story often seems to suffer because of it. Frankenweenie is currently in pre-production and set to be released next year sometime. Burton has many other projects in the works including a Dark Shadows film, and Meledandri is also developing another Dr. Seuss adaptation, The Lorax, as well a live-action/animation film with Russell Brand lending his voice as the son of the Easter Bunny. Hop just finished shooting, but it sounds like a poor rip-off of Elf to me. All of this seems to ensure a long wait for the Addams Family film. I can only hope that the 3D trend vanishes by the time Burton gets around to it.