Judd Apatow Developing Pee-Wee Herman Film
SincePaul ReubensasPee-wee Hermanstarted to work his way back to the spotlight, he’s been talking about making two movies. One would be for adults, and one for kids. And now there’s word that one of these two films is being developed for Universal byJudd Apatow, with Reubens andPaul Rustwriting. The question is: which film is it? (I’m assuming this won’t be calledThe 50-Year Old Virgin.)
Varietysays that Apatow is working with Universal and Reubens to create “a road pic built around a gigantic adventure.” Apatow is only producing at this point,notdirecting.
That sounds like it is probably thePee-Wee’s Playhousemovie, of which Reubens haspreviously said
It’s not really the real world, it’s Puppetland…On Pee Wee’s Playhouse, on the television series, we never left the playhouse, we were always inside the playhouse. The movie is all out of the playhouse. There are two scenes in the playhouse, but the rest is out of the playhouse.
Late last year he said that film was scripted and ready to shoot. So, now that he’s got a project lodged at Universal with Apatow overseeing, is Reubens working from that idea and script, or is this something different? Seems more likely that he’d be doing a new pass on the Playhouse script with Rust, but the trade report doesn’t offer enough details to know for sure.We do know that the project came together after Apatow saw the live Pee-wee stage show that recently played LA.
The report does, however, have a nice selection of laudatory quotes from Reubens and Apatow.
Reubens on Apatow:
There is no one like Judd in our business — he loves comedy with emotion and heart, and he sees what we do as art.
and vice versa:
Let’s face it, the world needs more Pee-wee Herman…I am so excited to be working with Paul Reubens — who is an extraordinary and groundbreaking actor and writer.
Update:AtCHUD, a reader posted a comment saying that while appearing at the LA Film Festival last weekend, Reubens talked about his Pee-wee movie scripts.
So take that for what it’s worth — this might be something totally different from the long-discussedPlayhousefilm.
