I feel bad for Paul Reubens. The guy watches a porno and his entire life is irrevocably ruined. Since parental overreaction screwed up his career back in the 90s, Reubens has attempted several comebacks. None of them have really taken, though he’s absolutely genius as The Spleen in the underrated and awesome movie Mystery Men and more recently he had a great cameo on television’s funniest show 30 Rock. Lately though, Reubens has been talking a lot about trying to resurrect Pee-wee Herman, no doubt hoping that the kids whose parents thought he was a pervert will now have grown up and be ready for more of his weird, red bowtie wearing character.
Reubens has been talking for quite awhile now about a new Pee-wee movie script he has written, and though his quest to get it made hasn’t exactly paid off he’s still trying. The guy is so desperate to get it done, that he recently revealed to MTV that he’s even willing to let someone else play Pee-wee, if that’s what it takes for Hollywood to finally let his movie get done. Of course any Pee-wee fan knows that’s completely unacceptable, Reubens is and always will be Pee-wee. However, he does have a rather interesting notion on who might replace him if it actually comes to that.
Reubens says, “My second option is to have Johnny Depp play Pee-wee.” Of course, that’s probably everyone’s backup plan for every movie. Hey, let’s get Johnny Depp! But apparently this is more than just a pipe dream. He says he’s talked to Johnny about it, and Depp told him he’d think about it. Or… maybe that was just Johnny’s version of “don’t call me I’ll call you”. Hard to say. There is a connection there though. Johnny Depp is tight with director Tim Burton, and Burton’s first really big break was directing Pee-wee’s Big Adventure in 1985. Tim’s partially responsible for kicking the whole thing off. Maybe he could talk Johnny into doing it?
Let’s hope he doesn’t need to. Forget Depp. If Paul Reubens is ready to play Pee-wee again, the guy deserves another shot. The character’s still great, let’s forgive and forget folks, and bring Pee-wee Herman back.
