They’re Creepy and They’re Kooky… the Burton Family

Who do you turn to for inspiration when you’ve already tackled the work of Lewis Carroll, Washington Irving and Roald Dahl? If you’re Tim Burton, the answer is Charles Addams.  Considering Burton’s own eccentric ways on film, there isn’t anyone better suited to to bring the Addams Family to 3D in all their ghoulish glory.

According to Deadline Hollywood,  Tim Burton will direct a stop-motion animated adaption of The Addams Family. It will be based on Charles Addams’ slightly macabre drawings that were a staple of New Yorker magazine, and not on the 60’s television sitcom or the films starring Raul Julia and Angelica Huston from the 90’s. Illumination Entertainment has acquired the rights to the Addams drawings and Chris Meledandri will produce the film.

Burton is no stranger to stop-motion animation.  He wrote and produced the Disney holiday classic The Nightmare Before Christmas and later directed Corpse Bride. He’s is also working on a stop-motion feature length adaption of  his 1984 short film Frankenweenie. Burton’s own drawings are on exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City and is expected to provide much of the visual look of the film himself.

The Addams Family cartoons that were featured for years in the New Yorker were actually a play on the ideal American family, but with eccentric and ghoulish behaviors. The Addams Family is in the midst of yet another resurgence of popularity. A musical starring Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia is about to open on Broadway and is expected to be THE big musical of the year.

No word on when this will go before cameras. A writer will be hired shortly.