Admit it... you're already humming the song!
The late Michael Ende's beloved fantasy novel, The Neverending Story, is being re-adapted for the big screen, with a new series of live -action movies in development from Michael Ende Productions and See-Saw Films.
Iain Canning and Emile Sherman will produce for See-Saw alongside Roman Hocke and Ralph Gassmann for Michael Ende Productions.
The previous 1984 adaptation has become a family-favourite over the years, and is probably best-remembered for its catchy title tune and for traumatizing an entire generation of kids with the infamous Swamps of Sadness scene, in which the hero's horse, Artax, is drowned.
“The story is both timely and timeless, and really has an opportunity to be told in a fresh way,” said Canning (via Variety). “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. “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.”
The story focuses on a schoolkid named Bastian Balthasar Bux who, while escaping from bullies, discovers the mysterious book which transports him (literally) to the magical realm of Fantastica (Fantasia in the movie). The book charts the journey of the heroic Atréyu, who accepts a mission from the Childlike Empress to prevent their world being destroyed by a dark force known as The Nothing.
We don't know how many films are planned, and no writers or directors are currently attached, but Canning notes that the various locations Ende described — including the Ivory Tower, Goab the Desert of Colors, Silver Mountains, Spook City, Silver Lake and the Swamps of Sadness — lend the shoot to being an “international global production.”
What do you make of this news? Any fans of the book or '80s movie out there? Drop us a comment down below.