Joe Dante’s dark comedy The Burbs will become a TV show, with the remake headlined by Keke Palmer and Jack Whitehall. More here.
A little lost in the back catalogues of both Tom Hanks and director Joe Dante is the dark comedy The Burbs. It was sold as a particularly dark comedy, released in the slipstream of Hanks’ big breakthrough hit, Big. Middling critical reactions and modest box office followed, and then – over time – the movie has attracted a growing cult audience. Arrow Video has reissued it on physical media, too.
Now though, the film is getting a television remake in the US, and, well, it’s hard not to shrug the old shoulders a little. The male lead for the new The Burbs is set to be Jack Whitehall, a man who’s put together a growing collection of movie roles in recent years, without really thriving in any of them.
Still, he’s very much on the Hollywood casting lists, and he’ll be appearing opposite Keke Palmer as the couple at the heart of the new The Burbs. Also on board are Mark Proksch, Julia Duffy, Paula Pell and Kapil Talwalkar.
It doesn’t sounds as though Joe Dante has any involvement in this, but I hope that someone at the very least sends him a nice cheque.
Celeste Barber is on scripting duties, and the plan will be to shoot the show later this year. Universal’s Peacock streaming service is the destination for the show, which means it’ll end up on Sky more than likely over here.
There’s a synopsis for the new show that’s popped up, and that reads as follows…
Their world is upended when a new neighbour moves in across the street bringing old secrets of the cul-de-sac to light, and new deadly threats shatter the illusion of their quiet little neighbourhood
More on The Burbs remake as we hear it. Or, alternatively, we could just go and watch The Burbs again…
