Happy Friday the 13th! Just in time for the unlucky day is a look at 1313 Mockingbird Lane for Bryan Fuller’s upcoming dramedy… Mockingbird Lane. Entertainment Weekly debuted the concept art as seen above on their website in an interview with the show’s creator. Bryan talked about what to expect with this re-invention of The Munsters, including what characters may make an appearance and some interesting information on the show’s costumes. Check out an excerpt below, then head to the source for more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you first become involved with this project?
BRYAN FULLER: It started when I was at the Tim Burton exhibit in New York and he had all these monster family portraits. And I thought there should be a show about a family of monsters. But any show about a family of monsters is going to be calling back to the original show about a family of monsters. We are reinventing The Munsters because if we didn’t everybody would just say, “You’re ripping off The Munsters!” So why not just make it official?

What excited you about the idea?
I always loved the original and was much more a Munsters child than an Addams Family child. The Munsters were the more relatable family. The Addams family looked normal but they acted weird and were sort of mal-socialized in a way. The Munsters were a more functional, sane family unit, they just looked different. [The shows] were almost inverses of the same idea. Obviously, Addams came first, then The Munsters took advantage of the Universal monsters and what they brought to the table. What excited me was to tell this story — and it’s going to sound strange in regards to this property — in a grounded, more realistic way.

And that tonal focus is why you changed the title?
The script is such a dramatic departure from the tone and style of the original show. If we continued to call the show The Munsters, people are just going to to think we’re doing The Munsters. We’re doing a reinvention and re-imagination of this property. I love the Universal monsters. I love The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, The Wolfman, Phantom of the Opera, The Mummy. There’s so many great characters we can run through this metaphor of family storytelling that it just felt it was ripe to do as a one-hour dramedy. Having all those elements to play with, the toy box is really, really full.

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According to Deadline, British actress Charity Wakefield has been cast as Marilyn Munster in the upcoming “Mockingbird Lane.” This, in addition to Eddie Izzard’s casting as Grandpa. The site also reports the following summary of the character for this darker reboot of “The Munsters”:

Marilyn [is] Lily’s beautiful niece and the only “normal” Munster (which makes her rather abnormal). Saved from being devoured by her own mother as an infant, she lives with the Munsters but has not inherited any of their special attributes. A college student who believes in good manners and congeniality toward the new neighbors, she regularly clashes with Grandpa, but she gets along well with Aunt Lily and Uncle Herman, as well as with her young cousin Eddie.

In some amazing casting news, Eddie Izzard has been cast as the iconic Grandpa in Bryan Fuller’s upcoming remake of “The Munsters”! According to The Hollywood Reporter, he will also serve as producer on the pilot episode, along with Fuller and Bryan Singer executive producing. Eddie is the first character to be cast in “Mockingbird Lane,” and the newly envisioned Grandpa is described as follows:

In the reboot, Grandpa is described as a powerful vampire with the quick wit that [Al] Lewis initially injected into the character. He’s the head of the mysterious family who continues to have Herman under his thumb.

Bryan Fuller will finally be brought back to the small screen as NBC has ordered a full season of “Hannibal,” the re-imagined television series based on Thomas Harris’s cannibal serial killer. A total of thirteen episodes will air in the fall; casting has yet to be announced. According to EW, the logline for the show is as follows:

“One-hour contemporary thriller series featuring the classic characters from Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon – FBI agent Will Graham and his mentor Dr. Hannibal Lecter – who are re-introduced at the beginning of their budding relationship.”

On a semi-related note that was otherwise never reported on BFO: Bryan’s “Mockingbird Lane” is experiencing a delay due to casting complications. The pilot now aims to be shot in June.

As if to further drive home the point that its “imaginative reinvention” of “The Munsters” will bear little resemblance to the classic ’60s version, NBC is giving the reboot a new moniker.

Sources confirm to TVLine exclusively that the title of the pilot — which is being stewarded by “Pushing Daisies” creator Bryan Fuller and X-Men auteur Bryan Singer — has been changed from “The Munsters” to “Mockingbird Lane.”

The new handle is, of course, a nod to the family’s iconic Victorian abode, which is situated at 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

SOURCE

Bloody Disgusting received a tip on the upcoming reboot of “The Munsters,” including some character descriptions and more information on the plot. It was also mentioned that filming will begin in February, so we can probably expect some casting (at least for the initial pilot) very soon. I thought it was better to just repost what their insider said rather than rewording, so check out more details on the show below:

We’re exclusively told by insiders that this will NOT be a remake of the original 1964 series that starred Fred Gwynne, Al Lewis and Yvonne De Carlo as a family of friendly monsters have misadventures never quite realizing why people react to them so strangely.

The modern take will instead be strange hybrid of the popular comedy “Modern Family” and HBO’s “True Blood”. While the series will be dark there will be a lot of heart and comedic elements. While I’m a huge fan of Bryan Fuller’s “Dead Like Me”, his “Pushing Daisies” never grabbed my attention, and frankly neither were any good at character development. The follow, though, gives me some series hope. There are a lot of interesting people moving into 1313 Mockingbird Lane…

The pilot episode, which is to be directed by Bryan Singer – who also was behind the camera for the “House” pilot, Superman Returns and X-Men – will focus on 10-year-old Eddie Munster who is unaware that he’s a werewolf, and that his family is composed of terrifying creatures. The madness begins when a baby bear attacks a scouting trip, only it turns out that this “bear” is actually Eddie transformed into a werewolf. Eddie is unaware of his metamorphosis and it forces the family to move in order to protect the family secret. The coming of age story gets weirder as he fights against his family when he learns of a shocker: they’re a family of flesh-eaters!

A few other random character notes: Lily Munster has an eating disorder and eats suicide victims. Grandpa Munster is a 600-year-old shapeshifter, and Marilyn Munster was adopted when her mother tried to eat her as a baby.

Bryan Singer – director of X-Men, Valkyrie, and the critically acclaimed The Usual Suspects – has been tapped to direct and co-produce Bryan Fuller’s reboot of the cult classic, “The Munsters.” The deal is still being finalized, but Deadline is reporting that Singer has been interested with the project even before it was green lit.

Singer has directed previous television pilots in the past, including Football Wives and the very popular House. He was also an executive producer on ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money.

Wonderful news! The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Bryan Fuller’s pilot for the re-imagining of “The Munsters” has officially been greenlit by NBC. The new series will take the concept of the original 1960s sitcom and turn it into a one-hour drama, making it “edgier and darker” in the process. (BFO also hopes that Bryan’s usual wit and whimsy will be retained!) Hopefully more information – including casting and further details on the plot – will be revealed soon.

Looks like fans may soon get to see “The Munsters” brought to life once again! Although NBC initially passed on the pilot script, the new chairman – Robert Greenblatt – is thankfully giving it a second shot. More details below:

NBC has decided to give “Pushing Daisies” scribe Bryan Fuller’s revamp of the classic ’60s series “The Munsters” another shot, putting the series back in development after initially giving the idea a pass, a source familiar with the project confirms to TheWrap.

Also read: CBS Conjures Up a “Bewitched” Revamp

The proposed series would be a still-humorous, though edgier and darker, hour-long offering that would delve into the origins of Herman Munster, Lily Munster and their monstrous clan.

The network initially greenlit the pilot in September. While NBC brass passed on Fuller’s initial script, recently installed NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt was keen enough on the idea to order a second go at the script.

SOURCE

News reports were abuzz when it was announced Bryan Fuller would be bringing back “The Munsters” to the modern world. After months of no updates on the progress (aside from Bryan mentioning it was just in script-form), TVLine threw fans a bone by asking NBC president Bob Greenblatt about the show:

TVLINE: The Munsters — does that project still have a pulse?

That’s something I read a very early draft of in January, and it’s an idea that I quite like. It’s still very much in development.

Unrelated to the above article/quote, I just wanted to mention that BFO’s gallery is currently down. My original plan was to have a large collection of screen caps from all of Bryan’s projects, but it’s just taking up too much space. I’ll be deleting all the images and reworking the gallery so that it’s still comprehensive, but not so exhaustive. Sit tight!