"Very Young Frankenstein" Receives Pilot Order at FX

[Danja]

Cary Elwes To Get Presidential In FX’s ‘Very Young Frankenstein’ Pilot

Cary Elwes is set to play the President of the United States in his second Mel Brooks project, FX's 'Very Young Frankenstein.'

deadline.com

Very Young Frankenstein is inspired by Mel Brooks‘ classic 1974 film Young Frankenstein. Brooks is executive producing the FX project alongside a trio of creatives from FX’s What We Do in the Shadows: Stefani Robinson, who would serve as writer and showrunner; Taika Waititi, who would direct the pilot; and Garrett Basch. Also executive producing are Brooks’ producing partner Kevin Salter (History of the World, Part 2, Spaceballs 2) and Young Frankenstein producer Michael Gruskoff. 20th Television is the studio.

That's FRONKENSTEEN ...

#Iykyk

In all seriousness, between this and the Spaceballs sequel, Brooks is busy for someone who's 99!

 

[Christopher]

I'm not confident about this. I think Young Frankenstein's success owed more to Gene Wilder than Mel Brooks. Although I wonder how actively a 99-year-old man is really contributing to these productions; it seems more likely that he's just lending his name and cachet.

The name Very Young Frankenstein suggests a Saturday morning cartoon spinoff about Friedrich and Inge's preteen son getting into wacky monster-making hijinks. Although I doubt that's what it will be.

 

[Commander Troi]

I'm... guardedly curious.

 

[the G-man]

In all seriousness, between this and the Spaceballs sequel, Brooks is busy for someone who's 99!

Brooks isn't "busy" doing anything but cashing the checks and letting them use his name. I mean, good for him, he deserves it but there's no way it's anything but this.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

My Mom is 80 and Wink is 87. They just recently completed a 60 mile marathon bike ride.
Dick Van Dyke is 99 years old and last summer he collaborated with Chris Marin of Coldplay on a song and music video. He shows no signs of slowing down.
I don't see why Mel Brooks isn't actively involved in some aspects of production of Spaceballs and Young Young Frankenstein.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Brooks is busy for someone who's 99!

I thought Barbara Feldon was 99. (She's currently 92.)

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hmm Don Adams never made it to 86: he died at 82.

As to this "Very Young Frankenstein," what we know about the project amounts to (if you'll pardon my Yiddish) bubkes. And so there's little point in speculation. It could be very good, or very bad.

 

[Christopher]

As to this "Very Young Frankenstein," what we know about the project amounts to (if you'll pardon my Yiddish) bubkes. And so there's little point in speculation. It could be very good, or very bad.

True, but when the original was as good as it was, the odds that a derivative work will equal or surpass it are commensurately lower, especially when the one surviving original creator was the one probably less responsible for its quality. And really, I find it kind of sad that the only things Mel Brooks is doing anymore are revivals of his past successes.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Is BLAZING DIAPERS next?

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

True, but when the original was as good as it was, the odds that a derivative work will equal or surpass it are commensurately lower

In the case of YF, not just derivative works, and we've already seen it: Dracula, Dead and Loving It is actually a pretty decent movie. Very funny, yet as faithful to Stoker as most of the serious screen adaptations have been. Peter MacNicol's Renfield is delightfully wacky; the staking scene is hilarious, and yet YF set such an impossibly high bar that almost nothing else could come close.

 

[Christopher]

In the case of YF, not just derivative works, and we've already seen it: Dracula, Dead and Loving It is actually a pretty decent movie. Very funny, yet as faithful to Stoker as most of the serious screen adaptations have been. Peter MacNicol's Renfield is delightfully wacky; the staking scene is hilarious, and yet YF set such an impossibly high bar that almost nothing else could come close.

DD&LI is a reasonably entertaining movie, but I wouldn't call it one of Brooks's best. Its main asset was Amy Yasbeck, who was never more luminous than in her two Mel Brooks movies.

 

[I am not Herbert]

True, but when the original was as good as it was, the odds that a derivative work will equal or surpass it are commensurately lower, especially when the one surviving original creator was the one probably less responsible for its quality. And really, I find it kind of sad that the only things Mel Brooks is doing anymore are revivals of his past successes.

We already have a track record here, and it isn't great. (The 2007 YF musical, which was...loud). As for Brooks exhuming his old successes, well he's been doing that for so long (since @ 2000 by my count) including post-Producers, when he really could have used his cachet and box office appeal to create something, anything new, that it doesn't hit me as sad, just lazy and boring. Spaceballs 2...jeez. Has anyone tried watching the first Spaceballs recently? It is pretty painful.

Blazing Saddles remains transcendent, however. And no one's going to try to exhume that one...