The NeverEnding Story getting remade

I had the chance to watch The NeverEnding Story around 2 months ago as it is always on TV during the Christmas period in the UK. I can remember wondering what it could look like if it were re-made today, given the special effects and developments we have had since 1984. While it is a classic, it is a bit slow compared to today’s standards, and if done right it could be rather epic.

From THR:

Warner Bros. and a pair of top-tier production banners are in the early stages of a reboot of the 1980s children’s fantasy classic.

The Kennedy/Marshall Co. (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) and Leonard DiCaprio’s shingle Appian Way are in discussions with Warners about reviving the 25-year-old franchise with a modern spin. The studio recently acquired rights to the property, clearing the way for a potential remake.

Born out of a German-language novel by Michael Ende, the film centers on a boy named Bastian Balthazar Bux who discovers a parallel world in a book titled “The NeverEnding Story.” As the boy, a loner, delves deeper into the book, he increasingly finds his life intertwined with the plot of the novel, in which a hero in the land of Fantasia must save the universe on behalf of an empress.

The new pic — which original producer Dieter Geissler also will produce and Sarah Schechter and Jesse Ehrman will oversee for Warners — will examine the more nuanced details of the book that were glossed over in the first pic.