Cinefantastique Online

According to Deadline, X-MEN/SUPERMAN RETURNS director Bryan Singer is set to sign a deal to produce and direct NBC Universal’s pilot for THE MUNSTERS.

The article states that writer/executive producer Bryan Fuller’s re-boot of the 1960’s monster sitcom is intended as “a visually spectacular one-hour drama.”

I’ll repeat that that, so that you’ll know you’re not hallucinating: The NBC PILOT OF THE MUNSTERS IS GOING TO BE A ONE- HOUR DRAMA!

Bryan Fuller and Bryan Singer have good track records in television, with Fuller’s imaginative but short-lived PUSHING DAISIES, and Singer directing the pilot to HOUSE (and exec. producing the series).  So it’s perhaps presumptuous to question their judgement so harshly—but this sounds like the bone-headed idea of the decade.

THE MUSTERS, though fondly remembered, was sort of a dumbed-down and more 60’s conventional version of THE ADDAMS FAMILY. Now, ADDAMS was successfully turned into a darker comedy as a feature film, so maybe a slightly more edgy and contemporary MUNSTERS could be a hit.

But a  visually spectacular one-hour drama? I can’t see it working, or even why the concept would be considered at all appealing.