Tim Burton to make TV directorial debut with 'Wednesday Addams' live-action series

The Addams Family is a fictional household created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker magazine. There have been several animated adaptations of the cartoon. Now, a member of the family, Wednesday Addams, has got her own live-action spinoff series on Netflix from acclaimed director Tim Burton.

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Wednesday Addams live-action series coming on Netflix

Netflix has announced that they are developing a new live-action series titled Wednesday Addams. It will be a coming-of-age comedy helmed by Tim Burton and written by Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar. The plot will be a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery, depicting the titular character’s years as a student at Nevermore Academy. It is where she tries to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago—all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships.

The project will mark Tim Burton’s first live-action show and his TV debut. He, Gough, and Miller will serve as showrunners on the series and executive producers. It will be financed by MGM/UA Television, which controls the underlying rights to the IP.

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Netflix Director Original Series Teddy Biaselli called Wednesday “the ultimate lone wolf” character. He said that when they first heard Al Gough and Miles Millar’s pitch for Wednesday they were "struck, like an arrow from a crossbow," right in their hearts. The director mentioned that the writers "nailed" the tone, the spirit, and the characters, but gave them a fresh way into this story. He recalled that they then got the call that "visionary" director and lifelong Addams Family fan Tim Burton wanted to make his television directorial debut with this series. Biaselli asserted that the filmmaker has had a history of telling empowering stories about social outsiders like Edward Scissorhands, Lydia Deitz, and Batman. And now Burton brings his "unique vision" to Wednesday and her spooky classmates at Nevermore Academy, he noted. 

The Addams Family focuses on a spooky family consisting of father Gomez, mother Morticia, children Wednesday and Pugsley, Uncle Fester, Grandmama, butler Lurch, and the disembodied hand 'Thing'. The characters have been a subject for many big, small screen, and stage adaptations including a television series that premiered in 1964-1966, two films starring Anjelica Huston and Christopher Lloyd, that were released in 1991 and 1993 respectively, and an animated feature that premiered last year. Christina Ricci, the actor most closely associated with Wednesday, played the role in both feature films in the 1990s.

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With inputs from PTI