“Meledandri bought the rights to the ghoulish, darkly humorous drawings that Charles Addams created for The New Yorker,” reports Deadline. “Those drawings also formed the basis for the toned down TV show and subsequent feature film comedies and Broadway musical. Burton will direct a film that is one of the plum projects on Meledandri's slate for Illumination, the Universal-based family film unit.

"Both of these projects are based on artwork that Tim absolutely loves," Karasewski stated to Deadline. "The retrospective in New York of Tim's own artwork showed how much of an influence Charles Addams was to him. We want the tone to be as darkly funny and subversive as the Addams drawings, and we've come up with an approach that nobody has ever done before."

"Big Eyes" came up while Burton was in discussions with Alexander and Karaszewski about the comic strip adaptation. "It turns out he's a big fan of Margaret and has commissioned artwork from her," Alexander told Deadline.

Big Eyes should be a pretty crazy script. Walter Keane became a national celebrity and talk show fixture in the 1950s after he pioneered the mass production of prints of big-eyed kids, and used his marketing savvy to sell them cheaply in hardware stores and gas stations across the country. Unfortunately, he claimed to be the artist, who was actually his shy wife, Margaret [to be played by Kate Hudson] who painted them while he signed them.

This fraud eventually broke up their marriage and led to a court battle. “The case culminated in a dramatic courtroom showdown,” reports Deadline. “The judge put up two easels, side by side, and challenged each of them to start painting. He begged off, blaming a shoulder injury, while she dashed off her familiar big-eyed creation. They will go out to cast and financing for a film that has a budget in the teens.

“’I am excited to be working with Scott and Larry again,’ Burton said in a statement. ‘I've always been a great admirer of Margaret Keane's work and find her story intriguing.’”

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