Posted in: Netflix, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: addams family, catherine zeta jones, netflix, preview, tim burton, wednesday

Wednesday: Catherine Zeta-Jones Joins Burton Series as Morticia Addams

What good would Luis Guzmán's (Boogie Nights) Gomez Addams be without his Morticia? Well, that's something that Tim Burton's (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood) eight-episode, live-action "The Addams Family" spinoff series Wednesday won't have to worry about. Variety is reporting that Catherine Zeta-Jones (Prodigal Son) is taking on the role of the young Addams' (Jenna Ortega) mother. Created by Al Gough and Miles Millar, the series finds Wednesday spending her time as a student at the peculiar Nevermore Academy involved in sleuthing some supernatural mysteries. Andrew Mittman for 1.21 (The Addams Family, Alphas), Kevin Miserocchi (Tee and Charles Addams Foundation), Kayla Alpert (Code Black, Up All Night), Jonathan Glickman for Glickmania (RESPECT, Addams Family 2) & Gail Berman (The Addams Family, Alphas) are also part of the production team.

Here's a look back at Ortega's Instagram post announcing the news of her casting, followed by a look at what Netflix's Director of Original Series Teddy Biaselli had to say about the project when it was first announced:

"Who among us has never felt like an outsider? I truly believe that most people have, at one time or another, felt odd. Maybe creepy. Kooky even. And perhaps because I was so tapped into my inner oddball, I found a deep kinship to the family of Addams.

Whether it was the classic TV series, the brilliant movies, the recent Broadway musical, or even their guest appearances on Scooby-Doo – every time The Addams Family was on a screen, I was watching. I loved that at every opportunity the Addams skewered so-called "normality." Their entire existence was a middle finger (attached to a disembodied hand) to the status quo. And none was more rebellious, more avant-garde and more iconic than Wednesday Addams.

Adolescence is an awful time for everyone. We're growing hair in weird places, getting taller, breaking out, and all we want is for people to like us. She is the ultimate lone wolf. She marches to her own beat… and it's likely a funeral dirge.

When we first heard Al Gough and Miles Millar's pitch for Wednesday we were struck, like an arrow from a crossbow, right in our hearts. They nailed the tone, the spirit, and the characters, but gave us a fresh way into this story. The upcoming eight-episode series is a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday's years as a student at the peculiar Nevermore Academy. Wednesday's attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago – all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships of the strange and diverse student body."

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