A Studio Exec Took A Risk That Saved 1991's Addams Family From Utter Disaster
Barry Sonnenfeld's 1991 film "The Addams Family," based on the New Yorker comic strips by Chas Addams and extrapolated from the 1964 sitcom of the same name, was a pop culture clarion call for aspiring young goths the world over. The Addams Family were a gaggle of murderous weirds who lived in a haunted mansion, kept a severed human hand as a pet, and regularly engaged in cute family games wherein they exhumed long-dead relatives. They loved blood, sex, and magic. It's possible they were immortal; the young Wednesday (Christina Ricci) regularly murdered her brother Pugsley (Jimmy Workman). Morticia (Anjelica Huston) and Gomez (Raul Julia) were sexually active to an enviable degree, perhaps standing as one of the healthiest, most sex-positive couples in movies at the time. They were full of zest and joie de vivre. Only they were obsessed with death, so perhaps the term should be joie de mourir.
"The Addams Family" came at a curious cultural moment when the goth subculture was entering the mainstream. Thanks to the growing popularity of stores like Hot Topic (first opened in 1989 and considered edgy at the time) and the pop success of Bauhaus and Tim Burton, kooky death-obsessed outsiders were having a moment. It became popular to reject the shiny, square emotional emptiness of the pinks and revel in being creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky.
The tonal success of "The Addams Family" was curious, given that director Sonnenfeld was no goth. Indeed, he was merely a hard-working Hollywood cinematographer at the time, having filmed "Raising Arizona," "Big," "Miller's Crossing," and "Misery." "The Addams Family" was his directorial debut.
Sonnenfeld also almost didn't take the gig. According to a 2020 oral history given to EW, it was producer Scott Rudin who insisted on Sonnenfeld. This was a risk at the time.
The third, best choice
Sonnenfeld revealed that Rudin had already pitched "The Addams Family" to two notable filmmakers who would have been uniquely suited to the material: Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam. Burton passed on it, choosing instead to work on "Edward Scissorhands" and "Batman Returns." Gilliam, meanwhile, elected to make "The Fisher King" instead. Sonnenfeld said in the oral history that he didn't know how Rudin, a man he had only met a few times, even thought of him as a director.
Sonnenfeld hemmed and hawed for a little bit, only calling Rudin at the insistence of his wife, Susan L. Ringo. From the sound of it, Ringo was the one who pushed the hardest. When Sonnenfeld finally called Rudin, he recalled the conversation:
"[Rudin said to me] 'I sent the script to Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam and they both passed. After those two, I had a choice: give it to some safe hack comedy director or take a chance on someone who might do a brilliant job. Someone who was a visual stylist. Don't forget I was the studio executive on Big and Raising Arizona, both brilliantly shot by you. I know what you can do. This can't look like a typical comedy. The movie has to create a world and be amazing to look at — like Charles Addams' drawings. So that's why you're here. All the good directors passed.'"
That's not very flattering, but Sonnenfeld was still chuffed to be considered the third choice over some "safe hack." He immediately gave notes to Rudin about what he would change about the initial "Addams Family" script which he had read and roundly hated.
Go with God
Sonnefeld pointed out that the script was, in his words "more jokey than funny." It seems that the screenwriters were reaching for a flippant sitcom tone rather than the grim, gallows humor of Chas Addams' original comic strips. Sonnenfeld was open about his opinions. "I could be honest with Scott," he said, "because I wasn't looking for the job." He felt he already had a cushy gig shooting films for Rob Reiner and the Coen Bros. Rudin, Sonnenfeld recalled, was impressed with his honesty. He said:
"For five hours a week, Rudin can be the most charming person on the planet. This was Sunday, the start of a new week and since he was using up a lot of his weekly stipend he cut to the chase. 'Look, [he said], 'If I can get Orion to hire you as the director, will you do it? I promise we will get the script to a place where you and I will both be happy.' 'Scott, [I replied], 'If you can get a studio to hire me to direct "Addams Family," go with God.'"
Rudin got his way, and Sonnenfeld was brought on. "The Addams Family" kicked off an impressive directorial career for Sonnefeld who also helmed the "Addams" follow-up "Addams Family Values," as well as the truly excellent "Get Shorty," the ultra-hit "Men in Black" movies, and the underrated comedy "Big Trouble." Hollywood eventually burned him — he helmed stinkers like "Wild Wold West" and "Nine Lives" — and Sonnenfeld comfortably shifted to television, directing episodes of "The Tick," "Pushing Daisies," and, more recently, "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and "Schmigadoon!"
Sometimes all it takes is a blustering super-producer in your corner.