“The never ending Story”
Remake of Michael Ende’s legendary novel planned
The German star director Wolfgang Petersen brought “The Neverending Story” to the cinema for the first time in 1984.
© imago images/United Archives
Around 40 years after the premiere of “The Neverending Story,” a new adaptation of the famous story was announced today.
The fantasy classic “The Neverending Story” based on the novel of the same name by Michael Ende (1929-1995) is to be remade, reports among others the US industry magazine “Variety”. A new adaptation of the famous story about Bastian, Atreyu, the Childlike Empress and the dragon Fuchur is planned. The producers of the project are currently looking for creative staff such as screenwriters and directors. A start date is therefore not yet available.
Are several new “The Neverending Story” films coming?
The production companies behind the planned project are Michael Ende Productions (“Jim Knopf and Lukas the Engine Driver”) and See-Saw-Films (“The Power of the Dog”, “The King’s Speech”). The rights for the remake were made available to them by Michael Ende’s executor, Wolf-Dieter von Gronau. A whole fantasy film series is planned, although the exact number of parts has not yet been determined, according to Variety.
Michael Ende’s novel “The Neverending Story”, first published in 1979, is about the imaginative boy Bastian, who gets lost in the mysterious book “The Neverending Story” and becomes part of the plot about the young hero Atreyu and the land of Phantásia.
The book has been sold in 45 languages and millions of copies worldwide. In April 1984, almost 40 years ago to the day, the film version of the same name by Wolfgang Petersen (1941-2022) was released in German cinemas and became a cult film – although the author Ende distanced himself from the work. Two more sequels with decreasing quality followed until 1994.