NeverEnding Story Reboot Movie Gets Eager Response From Original Star

The NeverEnding Story’s original Childlike Empress weighs in on plans for a series reboot. Based on the 1979 fantasy novel by German author Michael Ende, 1984’s The NeverEnding Story would originally only receive modest box office success in the US, despite a strong reception from critics. It eventually became a much beloved cult classic. Spawning two sequels and a short-lived television series, plans for a fresh reboot were first announced as far back as 2009. Despite rights issues causing those plans to fall through, a new series of live-action films was eventually announced to be in development earlier this year.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter for The NeverEnding Story’s 40th anniversary, Tami Stronach, who played the Childlike Empress in the franchise’s first movie, revealed her own enthusiasm for plans to reboot the property. Admitting that while many fans believe no one should attempt to recreate the original film, she does not necessarily agree. Instead, she believes that retelling existing stories is a natural way to inspire creativity. Check out her comments below:

There was a huge bidding war in Hollywood and in markets abroad. I just thought it would never happen. I have so many people that I speak with who love
The NeverEnding Story
, who tell me that no one should touch it, that it’s a travesty. But I really don’t agree. The whole point of it is to inspire creativity and to make sure that every person keeps the kid and the dreamer in them alive. Retelling stories feels like a natural extension of that.

Will The NeverEnding Story Reboot Succeed Where So Many Others Have Failed?

The Franchise Has Already Seen One Failed Reboot Attempt

At its heart, popular culture is largely an industry driven by the lure of nostalgia, and Hollywood’s ongoing preoccupation with reboots, revivals, and legacy sequels stems from the attraction of returning to the beloved stories of years gone by. While some franchise reboots and revivals do succeed in recapturing the appeal of the originals, a long succession of lackluster reboot attempts have taught audiences to become increasingly wary of such plans. Moreover, it is a problem that The NeverEnding Story franchise has already faced once before.

Following 1994’s disastrous The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia, the property was originally rebooted via a 2001 television series dubbed Tales from the Neverending Story. Making significant departures from Ende’s original book, the show would go so far as to show events out of order and even swap various plot points, such as bringing Atreyu into Bastian’s world rather than having Bastian enter Fantasia. Moreover, for the show’s US release, its original 13 episodes were recut into four, two-hour television movies, further diluting its intended story.

Thankfully, however, it has been announced that the new NeverEnding Story reboot will seek to return more closely to the original source material, and such an approach may avoid the pitfalls already faced by both the franchise’s last sequel and the television adaptation. If any tale is deserving of a well-told reboot, it would be The NeverEnding Story, and hopefully its latest incarnation will succeed in introducing Fantasia to a whole new generation of fans.

Source: THR

The Neverending Story

4.0

Based on the German novel of the same name, The NeverEnding Story centers on Bastian Bux, a young boy who finds a book about a fantasy world called Fantasia, and becomes inexplicably connected to the book’s plot as he begins to read it. Barret Oliver stars as Bastian, with Noah Hathaway, Tami Stronach, and Alan Oppenheimer as part of the main cast. 

Director

Wolfgang Petersen

Release Date

July 20, 1984

Studio(s)

Warner Bros. Pictures

Distributor(s)

Warner Bros. Pictures

Writers

Herman Weigel , Wolfgang Petersen

Cast

Patricia Hayes , Noah Hathaway , Barret Oliver , Sydney Bromley , Gerald McRaney , Tami Stronach

Runtime

94 minutes

Budget

$27 million

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