Netflix’s Wednesday Will Reunite Tim Burton and Danny Elfman

When it comes to the most prolific collaborations in Hollywood, there are few that can match that of director Tim Burton and composer Danny Elfman. Having works on dozens of projects together, including Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman, Alice in Wonderland and so many more, the pair are now teaming up yet again on Burton’s new Addams Family based Netflix show, Wednesday. As well as providing the opening theme music for the new series, Elfman will also be working alongside Scott Bacon to create the individual scores and theme music for specific episodes as well.

The news of the new collaboration was announced on Netflix’s Netflix Geeked Twitter account, which shared a picture of Elfman and commented, “”Danny Elfman and Tim Burton are re-teaming for Netflix’s live-action Wednesday Addams series, WEDNESDAY,” Netflix Geeked revealed in a tweet. “Elfman (Edward Scissorhands, Batman) will compose the theme song and score all eight episodes of WEDNESDAY alongside Emmy-nominated composer Chris Bacon (Smash, Bates Motel).”

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Tim Burton’s new series Wednesday was originally announced to be moving ahead at Netflix with a series order back in February, and will focus on the daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams who will be played by Jenna Ortega. The series follows Wednesday’s years at Nevermore Academy, with the young Addams trying to develop her psychic abilities, stop a killing spree taking place in a small town and delve into a 25 year old mystery involving her parents. Coming from Burton, we almost know exactly what to expect with spooky and atmospheric visuals and a dark, somber mood with just a hint of black comedy humor.

Burton will be directing several episodes of the series himself, as well as acting as executive producer alongside showrunners Miles Millar and Alfred Gough. Additional casting news has been revealed in the last few months, and despite many fans of the Addams Family movies of the early 1990s wanting Christina Ricci to take on the role of Morticia in the series, that has gone to Catherine Zeta Jones, while Luis Guzman will be playing Gomez. The cast is rounded off with Joy Sunday, Emma Myers, Hunter Doohan, Moosa Mostafa, Gwendoline Christie, Georgie Farmer, Naomi J. Ogawa, Percy Hynes White, Jamie McShane, and Riki Lindhome.

“We then got the call that visionary director and lifelong Addams Family fan Tim Burton wanted to make his television directorial debut with this series,” Netflix original series director Teddy Biaselli said when the show was announced. “Tim has had a history of telling empowering stories about social outsiders like Edward Scissorhands, Lydia Deitz, and Batman. And now he brings his unique vision to Wednesday and her spooky classmates at Nevermore Academy.”

Filming on Wednesday began back in September, and the series was originally set to include Thora Birch in the role of Tamara Novak, Wednesday’s “dorm mother” at Nevermore Academy, but the actress was forced to pull out of the Romania-based film shoot and return to the U.S. due to an undisclosed personal matter that was later said to be linked to a family illness by sources. That character has not been replaced in the series but a new character was expected to complete the function that Birch’s part would have provided.

The Addams Family Director Reflects on Casting Raul Julia & Anjelica Huston 30 Years Later

Ahead of the 30th anniversary of The Addams Family, director Barry Sonnenfeld recalled the troublesome production and spoke on why he chose his lead stars.