This has been one of those never-ending rumors pretty much since the advent of such sites as Twitter and Reddit. A reboot/revisit/revamp of the classic fantasty epic, “The Neverending Story.” Late author Michael Ende‘s novel was adapted in 1984 by Wolfgang Peterson into the cult-classic film we know and love today.
Last we heard, Disney was looking at some kind of project with the property, but no concrete news about it had been released since. Cut to this morning, and word that audiences will once again return to Fantastica (or Fantasia in the movies).
Today’s news is that Michael Ende Productions’ executor Dr. Wolf-Dieter von Granau has granted permission for See-Saw Films to adapt the work into a new project. See-Saw producers will include Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, alongside Roman Hocke and Ralph Gassmann for Michael Ende Productions.
“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.”
So, from that, we know that the core creative team of possible writers and directors has yet to be assembled. Likewise, there’s no telling if this will be for film or television. We could be looking at multiple movies, or series, or anything in between.
“The story is both timely and timeless, and really has an opportunity to be told in a fresh way,” Canning continued. “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.”
Hocke, who worked with Ende in the 80s until the author’s death in 1995, sees this project as the perfect way to celebrate Ende’s work and storytelling in general.
“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,” Hocke said. “And ‘The Neverending Story’ is the story of all stories.”
Obviously, we’ll let you know what we hear about this and other news. Until then, you can find the first film on Amazon (on sale, even!). Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re gonna be humming the theme for the rest of the day.
