The fine folks over at ComingSoon spoke with producer Christopher Melendandri who confirmed that, yes, a stop-motion version of The Addams Family was definitely headed down the pike, and that, yes, Tim Burton was involved and looking to direct.
A fifth grader could have predicted that Burton would be interested in directing, but he’s the wrong man for the job.
Why? Because there’s already a director out there that 1) is incredibly skilled with stop-motion and 2) has stayed fresh and interesting even as Tim Burton has become a paltry parody of himself who still salivates all over adaptation material that’s dressed in all black and cuts itself just to feel pain.
That director is Henry Selick – a talent who is already living in the shadow of Tim Burton since everyone thinks Burton directed The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Selick is a strong director who has an unbelievable eye for creating the kind of imagery in stop-motion that seems impossible (or can at least be appreciated for being painstaking). He is the king of stop-motion right now, and the fact that this involves the creepy, spooky, mysterious and ooky family Addams, it seems right up his alley.
It also seems more up 1993 Tim Burton’s alley, but more than a decade later, the guy has lost his edge and his touch despite inexplicably raking in wads of cash with Alice in Wonderland. In the end, that will be the tipping point for the decision, and the job is absolutely Burton’s if he wants it, but it’s a shame because there’s a better, more engaged talent out there that can not only run circles around Burton at stop-motion, he can also just plain outrun him as a director at this point.
Fingers should remain crossed either that they wise up and go to Selick, or that Burton suddenly snaps back into his potential and remembers how to make good movies again.
What do you think?
