Burton for 3D stop-motion Addams Family

In the wake of Alice in Wonderland’s success, Tim Burton has plans for another 3D project. This time he’ll be mixing the medium with stop-motion and returning to his darker roots with The Addams Family.

The Universal-based family film unit, Illumination Entertainment, has acquired the rights to Charles Addams’ ghoulish cartoon drawings. Inspired by the macabre family sketches, the film will be unrelated to any of the other incarnations of the satirical version of the ideal American family.

With The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride and Beetlejuice already under his belt and Frankenweenie heading our way, Tim Burton is the king of gothic stop-motion and all things frightful. Mix that together and add a dash of 3D, and you’re almost there. (Nightmare Before Christmas 3D doesn’t count as it wasn’t made for 3D – just converted after the fact.)

With visuals currently on display at a MOMA exhibition that opened last November, Burton is expected to provide much of the visual look of the film himself. His intentions are to go back to the original idea underlying the Addams illustrations that “display a sharper wit than could be placed into a ‘60s family TV series”.

Illumination Entertainment’s Chris Meledandri will produce, Keven Miserocchi of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation will be executive producer and a writer will be hired shortly.

With MOMA and Cannes, this really has been Tim Burton’s year.