He’s a loner, Dottie. A rebel.
Slowly but surely, we have been witnessing the return of Paul Reubens. His career revitalization comes to a head with the announcement that he’s finally moving forward with the new Pee-wee Herman movie, and has a director and a potential start date to prove it.
Reubens recently told the LA Times that a director has been chosen for the long-gestating project, though he would not say who. Script and financing for the film are also in place, so we can expect to find a new Pee-wee Herman film shooting by 2014.
This marks a major step in Reubens’ career turnaround. He’s been around for awhile ever since he was drummed out of the public sphere over that little public masturbation scandal back in the day. He’s done voice work – most recently in The Smurfs 2 – and appeared in minor roles on Reno 911!, 30 Rock and the 1999 film Mystery Men. But it was only recently that he managed to revive his old beloved character of Pee-Wee Herman, popping up on Conan O’Brien and on Broadway. He seems to have largely returned to the public’s good graces – and let’s face it, we’ve forgiven celebrities who have done worse things than Paul Reubens.
With the new Pee-wee movie potentially set for 2014, and the return of the Pee-Wee TV show set for the same, we shall be verily inundated with Mr. Reubens’ bizarre sense of humor. There are no direct plot details for the Pee-wee film, but it was written by Reuben and Paul Rust, and is being produced by Judd Apatow. According to Reubens, the film will be tonally in keeping with Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Big-Top Pee-wee. I think we can expect good things.
Meanwhile, we can hear (if not see) Paul Reubens in The Smurfs 2.
Are you excited for the return of Pee-Wee to the big screen? You better be.
