It’s been a good, long while since we got a Pee-wee Herman movie, but one has been in the works with Paul Reubens returning as the iconic character and Judd Apatow attached as a producer. When last we heard, the still-untitled film had landed at Universal, but apparently it found another, more unexpected home when nobody was looking.
While a spokesman for Universal confirmed that the studio is no longer backing the film, The Wrap reports that the streaming giant Netflix has scooped up the long-in-the-works Pee-wee Herman movie. Though their official statement is that no deal is officially in place, the report cites a source that says this happened "a gazillion months ago." When talking about Pee-wee Herman, "a gazillion" is a fine measurement.
We’ve known for quite some time that we’d be getting another Pee-wee outing at some point or another. We just didn’t know the details. A couple months ago, Reubens, who also co-wrote the script with fellow comedian Paul Rust, told Rolling Stone in an interview:
It think it first got leaked four years ago or so that the movie was going to be made, and ever since then it’s just been stalling and stalling. So I'm really ready for this to happen.
While he’s been waiting, though, Reubens hasn’t been letting Pee-wee slip into the shadows of history. He reprised the character in a number of ways, including on Comedy Bang! Bang! in 2013, Saturday Night Live in 2011 and on episodes of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Conan in between 2010 and 2011. Aside from that, he’s been helping to parody a number of things with his hilarious voice. The cherry, though, had to have been that time he dubbed the Dark Knight Rises trailer.
And what about that time he did the same thing to World War Z?
Just watching these segments again make us pine for the good old days of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Pee-wee’s Playhouse. At least those are available on Netflix. Do you think they were trying to send us all a secret message?
