August 20, 2010 12:39

Tim Burton reunites with 'Ed Wood' writers

Director to make 'Addams Family' and 'Big Eyes'

Director Tim Burton has reunited with the screenwriters of his 1994 film Ed Wood to collaborate on a pair of movies. Writing team Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who also created The People vs Larry Flynt, will write a stop-motion version of The Addams Family that Burton is producing for Universal.

They will also write the script for Big Eyes, a film produced by Burton, which follows cult artist Margaret Keane's struggle to get funding for her now-popular portraits of big-eyed children.

The Addams Family will be based on the macabre drawings that celebrated cartoonist Charles Addams created for The New Yorker.

"Both of these projects are based on artwork that Tim absolutely loves," Karaszewski told Deadline.com. "The retrospective in New York of Tim's own artwork showed how much of an influence Charles Addams was to him. We want the tone to be as darkly funny and subversive as the Addams drawings, and we've come up with an approach that nobody has ever done before."

Burton had previously commissioned Margaret Keane to paint a portrait of former girlfriend Lisa Marie.

Alexander and Karaszewski's script for Big Eyes follows Margaret and Walter Keane's tumultuous marriage in the 1950s, which ended in a high profile divorce case, during which both claimed to have created the paintings.

In court, the judge erected easels side by side and challenged the former spouses to a painting challenge, which Margaret won.

Speaking about the project, Burton said: "I am excited to be working with Scott and Larry again. I've always been a great admirer of Margaret Keane's work and find her story intriguing."