Universal Pictures' Illumination Entertainment and producer Chris Meledandri continue to develop a 3D, stop-motion, animated "Addams Family" feature, to be directed by Tim Burton, based on the New Yorker magazine illustrations by cartoonist Charles Addams.Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski ("Ed Wood") will write the screenplay.
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“We’ve come up with an approach that nobody has ever done before", said Karaszewski."We want the tone to be as darkly funny and subversive as the Addams' drawings.”
Cartoonist Addams never attributed names to his morbid characters, until ABC's live-action "Addams Family" comedy sitcom was being developed, with Addams naming the father 'Gomez', the mother 'Morticia', the uncle 'Fester', the butler 'Lurch', the daughter 'Wednesday' and the son 'Pubert', (later changed to 'Pugsley' at the insistence of the network).
The handy creature called 'Thing' was based on a New Yorker cartoon depicting a shocked mailman reacting to a sign posted on the Addams' mansion, warning "Beware of the Thing".
While developing the series, Addams explained that 'thing" was originally meant to be a disembodied head that rolled through the house on various ramps and pulleys. ABC later decided that a 'hand' would be better suited for a family audience.
