Just when you thought Tim Burton couldn’t get any busier, it’s rumored that the acclaimed visionary behind Alice in Wonderland may be gearing up to helm an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic story, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (True Grit) is on board to produce and star in the project.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Warner Bros. is developing the project with the duo [Burton and Brolin] and is bringing on board scribes Kieran and Michele Mulroney, who wrote the upcoming ‘Sherlock Holmes’ sequel for the studio.” In addition, the website reveals that the 1831 tale is “the story of Quasimodo, a deformed and hunchbacked bell-ringer of the Norte Dame cathedral who tragically falls in love with beautiful gypsy named Esmerelda… The book features Quasimodo fighting off troops, love and betrayal, a hanging, a swing off a bell tower and bodies and graves galore; in short, stuff that seems tailor-made for Burton.”
This story has been adapted many times over the last hundred or so years with a silent version in 1923, a more famously regarded retelling from 1939 which starred Charles Laughton, and the 1996 Disney cartoon with Demi Moore voicing Esmerelda.
CBS News also reveals, “In the Hugo story… To say it all ends in tragedy – Quasimodo dies of starvation in a mass grave, clutching Esmerelda’s corpse – is putting it mildly.”
While Burton is currently in pre-production for Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp as a vampire, there has been no formal announcement of his attachment to this film. Variety reports that many of the details behind the script at this time are currently under wraps.
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