Tim Burton at Lucca Comics & Games: “Wednesday Addams? It's me"

Tim Burton at Lucca Comics & Games

So says Tim Burton: “I grew up watching the original Addams TV series and cartoons. When I was a teenager, I felt like Wednesday. I was Wednesday. I shared his point of view, his black and white statements, his always being an outcast ". The most anticipated guest of the 2022 edition has arrived at Lucca Comics & Games to present his new Netflix TV series dedicated to the young Wednesday Addams. A few hours ahead of the preview broadcast of the pilot episode, Burton talked about how the project was born and what we can expect from a Wednesday that is no longer the little girl we remembered.

What she reveals. Wednesday's first teaser, Tim Burton's series about the Addams family The Addams family returns with a new episodic story with Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, focusing on the eldest daughter and the mysterious school she attends

In the TV series (coming November 23), Wednesday is pictured in her student years at Nevermore Academy - a strange school where eccentric and genius characters like Edgar Allan Poe have studied. “On Wednesday she was always portrayed as a little girl,” says Tim Burton. -I was curious to see how she would be as a girl, how she would react to school, to relationships with teachers, to therapy. This is how the project was born ”. Even in Nevermore Academy, a college for the outcast and outcast, Wednesday is out of the group. "You are an excluded among the excluded. She doesn't want to join the party. Like me, back in school, ”observes the director.

A timeless charm

So Wednesday finds herself in the modern world, a world of Snapchat and Instagram and social media, and classmates to deal with: “All this clashes with the character of Wednesday, "explains Burton." For her, social networks are a black hole: there are only typewriters and cello. Even in this I am like Wednesday: I'm afraid of the internet, when I start watching things on the web I start going down into a black hole and I find myself viewing funny videos of kittens. The web, social media, can be beautiful, very useful, and certainly they are, but too often they end up being used for evil. So I fear them. Like Wednesday. ”

According to Burton, the Addams family's appeal is almost universal:“ It's the weird family by definition, and in real life all families are weird. We all have some bizarre family member, and most of the kids I know are embarrassed by their parents. So imagine what it would be like to have Morticia as a mother ... we would have to freak out. ”

What the Wednesday series will be like

The young star is playing Wednesday Addams Jenna Ortega, previously seen in the Scream remake-sequel. “Without her there wouldn't have been a show,” Burton says bluntly. "Wednesday is an iconic character, so it is very difficult to find an actress who could play him by telling something new without betraying him. Jenna brought Wednesday to life, succeeding in the difficult task of becoming the character and at the same time making it her own. With her eyes, with her voice, with the calm strength of her character. I am really impressed. ”

Burton spends praise on the colleagues who accompanied him in this experience in filming the first 4 episodes of the TV series. “The other directors who worked with me inspired me; I set the tone for the show, but they followed it in their own way and they left me something in the process. Danny Elfman, who curated the music, is a friend of mine who I've always had a strong connection with because we share the same passions - and for me it's like he's been another character in the series, because that's the role of the music. Colleen Atwood, who made the costumes, was also by my side in many projects, and she had the task of providing Wednesday with new looks that did not betray the character: but creating new worlds is what she does best. "

And obviously Mano cannot be missing, always at the side (or rather, on the shoulder) on Wednesday: “Mano has had a difficult life, he has a strange history. For this reason she seems more worn out, worn out than we remembered her. I wanted to make it look more like a horror movie monster - The crawling hand, or The beast with five fingers. I wanted to give her a particular, magical story. We can define it - how to say - the Dustin Hoffman of the hands. ”

Burton concludes by recounting his first experience in a TV series. “I enjoyed it, it was enjoyable. There is a different, slower pace. But I still love movies, and I still think that there is always a place for cinema even in today's world ".