We haven’t heard much from The Wayans Brothers after their awful smash hit Little Man in 2006, and I have to say, I’ve enjoyed the breather. Unfortunately, our brake from their utter unfunny is almost over, since they’re planning to make one of their next projects a movie version of the classic television show The Munsters.
In an interview with MoviePictureFilm.com, Sean Wayans talked about their plans for translating the Munster family into a feature film. The good news is that none of the Wayans will actually be in it. They’re just writing and producing it. Instead, they’re “going to get some white people and paint them green.” I wonder if they know The Munsters only has one green character? His name is Herman guys. Try watching an episode before you adapt it.
The film will be a little edgier than the extremely innocent television show, but not too edgy. Sean says they’re planning for a PG-13 rating and readily admits that they’re making it PG-13 just to pander to kids who can’t get in to rated R movies. Speaking of the R-rated films they’ve done in the past, Sean says “You know what happened with the rated R thing is that we were doing our rated R comedies and then they started clamping down on kids going into the theater. So kids would still be sneaking into our movie but would be paying to see something else. So none of the box office went to our movie, yet everyone still saw it. Business wise, it made it tough for us to continue doing them.” At least he’s honest about selling out. But then it’s not like he had much to sell. They’re the Wayans brothers after all, not Terrence Malick.
I’ve always liked The Munsters, but I can’t see it working as a movie, even if it weren’t being soiled by the incredibly awful Wayans. There’s just no replacing the great Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and besides, the show mostly consisted of double entendres and silly monster jokes. Hilarious in a half-hour format when you’re twelve, but probably not so great stretched out into a 90 minute movie. Their monster family competitors The Adams Family always had more of a freaky, cinematic quality to them that the Munsters lack. Maybe that’s why the Adams got their movie in the 90s and it’s taken till now for everyone to run out of better ideas and get around to adapting The Munsters. I just hope the Wayans don’t tarnish my pleasant memories of the series with their handywork.
