Tim Burton To Develop A New ‘Addams Family’ TV Series
by Erik Amaya
It had to happen at some point, didn’t it?
Deadline reports Batman director Tim Burton is developing a new Addams Family series in conjunction with MGM television and Smallville instigators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. The project is currently making the rounds to the various streaming platforms in hopes of instigating a bidding war. Like the previous television shows and the multiple feature film series, it is based on the comic strips of Charles Addams. Initially published in The New Yorker, the strips offered vignettes of a macabre family reacting to life’s foibles in a way all-together ooky when compared to the buttoned-down city dwellers around them.
The strip eventually became a television series from producer David Levy. Airing on ABC from 1964 to 1966, it established the characters’ names and best-known quirks. It also became known to generations thanks to syndication in the ensuing decades; inspiring animated series, two feature films from director Barry Sonnenfeld, a second live-action series, and at least one TV movie starring Tim Curry.
Burton’s Addams Family will reportedly be some thing of a continuation of the first television show with the focus shifting to a grown-up Wednesday Addams in the 2020s. Granted, if it is truly a continuation, Wednesday would be a grandmama at this point. Presumably, the program will age her down to her mid-20s, as television often does in cases like this.
The marriage of the Addamses and Burton seems fated as much of the filmmaker’s output has felt adjacent to the concept’s sensibilities. Indeed, the Sonnenfeld films themselves feel inspired by the aspects of Addams’ work Burton himself used in films like Beetlejuice and Batman Returns.
The series will not interfere with the current animated feature series, with its sequel due out next year.