Popular children’s fantasy novel The Neverending Story, made into , is set to receive a fresh film adaptation 40 years later.
First written by author Michael Ende and published in 1979, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen took the reigns for its lavish big screen treatment, co-writing and directing one of , the enduring popularity of which sees it count Gen X, millennials and beyond among its fanbase.
Starring Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Patricia Hayes, Sydney Bromley and Gerald McRaney, The Neverending Story follows 10-year-old Bastian Bux (Oliver) who finds a magical book that tells of how a young warrior, Atreyu (Hathaway), is given the task of stopping the Nothing, a dark force, from engulfing the wonderland world of Fantasia and its ruler, the Childlike Empress.
As he reads further though, Bastian finds him transported into the fantasy realm himself, filled with mythical characters, including horse Artax and dragon Falkor.
With the initial movie only covering the first half of the best-selling novel, a 1990 sequel, The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter, followed, as well as The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia in 1994, which had nothing to do with the source material.
Given the massive cultural impact the first film had on millennials and Gen X viewers, there have been talks for years about a new take on the novel for film or TV, with a bidding war kicking off in September 2022.
Now, The Neverending Story’s re-adaptation has officially found its new home, thanks to a new joint-venture partnership between Michael Ende Productions and See-Saw Films, the production house behind the likes of The King’s Speech,, and TV hits Heartstopper .
Their proposed plan will see Fantastica back on screen across multiple live-action films once more.
‘The story is both timely and timeless, and really has an opportunity to be told in a fresh way, and part of the specialness of the book is that you can go back to it at different ages in your life and find different levels of meaning,’ shared producer Iain Canning , who first reported the news.
‘So how wonderful that we have this opportunity to do a fresh perspective that will have new layers and meanings. We just believe that every generation deserves their own journey into Fantastica.’
However, fans of the book and original screen adaptation have been left feeling a certain type of way by the news, with a fair amount of trepidation in their reactions.
‘I knew this day was coming. I don’t know how I feel about this,’ admitted fan Rhea on X, while Dennis added: ‘No no no leave a classic alone it’s a classic for a reason.’
‘Now we’re touching my childhood and I don’t like it,’ posted Ryan.
‘Yeah. No. I’ll pass on that, thanks for the heads up tho,’ wrote Xendria Jenkins and Lonell Fletcher complained: ‘All these remakes!!!!’
‘Just leave our classics alone!’ exclaimed Cortez too.
However, not everyone is closed off to the idea.
‘All I can think is how great this will look with all the developments in CGI….’ shared @LoAnne_87, while @dumurin enthused: ‘I want to see this new adaptation!’
Michael Ende Productions’ Ralph Gassman revealed that they had been ‘completely overwhelmed with interest from the television and film industry in recent years’, with many clamouring to do another adaptation, but only seriously started considering it ‘about four of five years ago’.
The Neverending Story received another boost in popularity in 2019 when Stranger Things’ Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) with his girlfriend Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo), pushing it to go viral in the Netflix show’s third season.
Other than hopes to shoot some scenes in Germany in a nod to author Ende’s heritage, all other details as to locations, creatives, casting and number of films in the new franchise currently remain undecided.
