‘Wednesday’ Showrunners Say Netflix Series Isn’t an ‘Addams Family’ Reboot, Is More Like “Eight-Hour Tim Burton Movie”
Wednesday showrunners Miles Millar and Alfred Gough say the Tim Burton-directed live-action Addams Family series is its “own thing” that hopefully watches more like a long movie in the famed filmmaker’s catalog.
Speaking to Vanity Fair as part of a first-look interview at the upcoming Netflix show, slated to drop in late 2022, Millar and Gough discussed how the series fits into the Addams Family universe and how they were able to bring Burton onboard as both director and executive producer.
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Millar noted that when it comes to the story, it was important that the show “didn’t feel like a remake or a reboot.” Instead, their ambition “was to make it an eight-hour Tim Burton movie.”
“It’s something that lives within the Venn diagram of what happened before, but it’s its own thing,” he continued. “It’s not trying to be the movies or the ’60s TV show. That was very important to us and very important to Tim.”
Speaking of Burton, the Wednesday EP — who was pitched on the 1991 Addams Family movie but passed — was considered “the Mount Everest of directors” for Millar and Gough. And to their shock, Burton was quick to express his initial interest in being involved with the show.
Just three days after he received the first episode’s script, the famed director had picked up the phone to call the duo.
“He was interested in where it was going, the mystery of the show,” Gough told the magazine. “He had a lot of questions about the previous television work we’d done, like how we were able to achieve it. He really loved that you had time to be with Wednesday and explore the character and you didn’t have to, you know, wrap things up in an hour and 45 minutes.”
As part of the interview, the co-creators also teased the Addams Family’s various character looks, with one notable absence: Uncle Fester. His presence, Millar and Gough say, is still under wraps.
“We have no comment on Uncle Fester,” Gough said. “Watch the show.”
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