Hollyweird showing it is still talentless and lazy now does yet another remake.
'The Neverending Story' Getting New Film Series Adaptation
From 'Slow Horses' Banner See-Saw
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Falkor flies again!
"The Neverending Story" -áthe beloved fantasy novel from late
German author Michael Ende that was famously adapted into the
cult 1984 film -áis being revived for the big screen once
more, with a new joint-venture partnership between Michael
Ende Productions and prestige tastemakers See-Saw Films
bringing the world of Fantastica back to cinemas over
multiple live-action films.
The news brings to an end the race for one of the hottest
fantasy properties yet to be tapped for modern audiences.
Variety hears that Ende's estate had been fielding interest
from across the globe over the last few years, including from
studios and streamers.
See-Saw -áno stranger to adapting well-known literature for
screen having been behind features including "Lion" and
"The Power of the Dog" and recent TV hits "Heartstopper" and
"Slow Horses" -áhas now teamed with Michael Ende Productions
to develop and produce the films. The new partnership has been
granted "The Neverending Story" rights by Ende's executor
Dr. Wolf-Dieter von Granau. Iain Canning and Emile Sherman
will produce for See-Saw alongside Roman Hocke and Ralph
Gassmann for Michael Ende Productions.
First published in 1979, "The Neverending Story" became a
bestseller in Germany and would be translated into 45
languages, selling millions of copies worldwide. At the center
of the story is the awkward but imaginative child Bastian
Balthasar Bux who, while escaping from bullies, discovers the
mysterious book "The Neverending Story," about the heroic
AtrΘyu and his mission to save the magical realm of Fantastica
-áa world of dragons, giants, vast kingdoms and deadly swamps -
and its ruler, the Childlike Empress, from being destroyed by
force known as "The Nothing." But the more he reads, the more
Bastian realizes he's not simply an uninvolved spectator and he
soon finds himself transported into Fantastica himself, flying
atop the luckdragon Falkor.
"The story is both timely and timeless, and really has an
opportunity to be told in a fresh way," said Canning, speaking
to Variety from the offices of "The Neverending Story" literary
agent AVA in Munich, Germany. "And part of the specialness of
the book is that you can go back to it at different ages in your
life and find different levels of meaning. So how wonderful that
we have this opportunity to do a fresh perspective that will
have new layers and meanings. We just believe that every
generation deserves their own journey into Fantastica."
"We've been completely overwhelmed with interest from the
television and film industry in recent years," added Gassman,
the AVA exec who works with Michael Ende Productions alongside
Ende's longstanding editor and estate curator Hocke. "But it was
only about four to five years ago when we felt it was right to
go back to Fantastica with new, fresher attention. So then we
looked at hundreds and hundreds of requests and just thought,
let's see if we find a potential partner amongst them that is so
compelling that they make us jump into the boat with them and go
on this crazy adventure. But we knew we had to do it right and
find the right partner, and luckily See-Saw was amongst them."
For See-Saw, "The Neverending Story" -áa much bigger and more
elaborate piece of material than it's used to handling -ámarks
the next step up for the London and Sydney-based company, first
founded in 2008 and made famous in 2011 with its Oscar-winning
"The King's Speech" (adapted by the late David Seidler from his
own stage play).
"Emile and I have always been very clear that, if we were going
to move forward on our journey, it had to be something really
special that we were passionate about and connected to
emotionally, so when this opportunity came about we just thought:
this would be so magical," Canning said. "Over our 15 years we've
been very careful - whether it be for 'The King's Speech' and the
audience that loved that or 'Lion' and the audience that loved
that, or 'Heartstopper' or 'Slow Horses' - about making quality
material and that audience responding to it. This is such an
opportunity to bring all that skillset together and do a full
quadrant spectacle of a film."
"The Neverending Story" alsoábrings Canning back to a conversation
he had in See-Saw's very early days, before "The King's Speech,"
when he was asked which project he would most like to produce.
"I said, do you know what, I'd really, really love to adapt
'The Neverending Story,'" he explains. "I was reminded of this
recently, so it just feels in a way that the 15-year journey of
See-Saw in terms of going from book to screen has led up to here."
The next task for the newly-formed partnership of See-Saw and
Michael Ende Productions will be to find the right creative team
to bring the novel to life before packaging the project and
seeking out distribution partners.
"The journey, in many ways, starts now," Canning said. "There's
been a lot of anticipation from people who love this story about
what the next steps would be. For us, we now need to speak to
writers and directors and hear their passion for the material."
Much of the details about the production -áincluding the exact
number of films to be made -áwill depend on the creatives
assembled. But Canning said that the wildly colorful locations
Ende described in "The Neverending Story" -áincluding the
so-called Ivory Tower, Goab the Desert of Colors, Silver
Mountains, Spook City, Silver Lake and the Swamps of Sadness
(where AtrΘyu's horse Artax famously drowns) -álend the shoot to
being an "international global production." He added that they
would also look to maintain a connection to the book's heritage by
shooting some scenes in Germany (much of the 1984 film was
actually shot in the Bavaria Studios in Munich).
Although producers may be looking for a modern day adaptation of
"The Neverending Story," news of its return to screens lands
during something of a renaissance for '80s nostalgia, led by shows
such as "Stranger Things." It was actually "Stranger Things" that
saw "The Neverending Story" recently back in the headlines, with
Moroder's famed synth theme from the first feature adaptation -áa
film Ende famously disavowed for deviating too far from his
original story -ábeing performed on the show and subsequently
going viral online.
Alongside both Michael Ende Productions and See-Saw, executive
producers on the new films will include the L.A.-based former
Endeavor Content exec Lorenzo De Maio and Ende's executor von
Gronau as well as See-Saw's CEO Simon Gillis and creative director
Helen Gregory. Gillis and De Maio will spearhead taking
"The Neverending Story" back out to the market once packaged. The
rights deal was negotiated by von Gronau on behalf of Michael
Ende Productions and Gillis and attorney Stephen Saltzman of
Fieldfisher, on behalf of See-Saw.
For Hocke, whose career began with Ende in the early 1980s and who
worked closely with him for almost two decades until he died in
1995, the new "The Neverending Story" adaption is not just the
perfect opportunity to "make a new monument" for the author, but
to celebrate the art and importance of storytelling.
"We need stories like we need the air to breathe and water to
survive. They give our inner worlds quality and with this quality
we make decisions of quality. Stories make the world better," he
said. "And 'The Neverending Story' is the story of all stories."
<
https://variety.com/2024/film/global/the-neverending-story-new-film-adaptation-see-saw-michael-ende-productions-1235944716/>
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