Paul Reubens Wants a ‘Dark’ Reboot of Pee Wee Herman

In a wide ranging and extremely entertaining feature in The Hollywood Reporter actor Paul Reubens talks about his career and the future of his iconic creation and alter ego, Pee Wee Herman.

Photo by Ramona Rosales.

From THR: “Reubens, now 67, is having a late-career moment — or at least trying his hardest to make one happen. Twenty-nine years after a notorious run-in at a Florida adult movie theater derailed his career — which was heading toward becoming the biggest children’s-programming phenom since Mister Rogers — he’s still hoping to pedal his red Schwinn back into America’s hearts. In a few days, he’s embarking on a 25-city road show celebrating the 35th anniversary of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure — the film that put Tim Burton on the map — that’s selling out at 2,000-seat theaters across the country. He’s at work on a radio project — something akin to a Pee-wee podcast — and is in talks to develop an animated series centering on the puppets from his old TV show’s Puppetland. Most intriguing of all, he’s been pitching studios on The Pee-wee Herman Story, a very un-Pee-wee-sounding screenplay that takes his puckish TV persona into dark and unexpected territory (Pee-wee gets sent to a mental hospital for shock treatment for his alcoholism, no joke).”

The famous “Large Marge” scene from 1985’s Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

Reubens, now more than ever, still wants to make his Valley of the Dolls Pee-wee movie, even if nobody else does. According to several well-placed sources, he’s been aggressively shopping the Pee-wee Herman Story script around town.

Read the full interview here.