I approach a new Pee-Wee movie much the same way I approached The Muppets. I didn’t ask for a new Muppets movie, but it was nice catching up with some old friends. Paul Reubens has had his share of ups and downs over the years, but the quality of his work onscreen has never waivered. Him performing his beloved character in front of a camera is always a good thing.

I think what’s come as a surprise, perhaps even to Reubens himself, is the character’s ability to endure. The Pee-wee Herman Stage Show: The Return was a runaway hit when it premiered in Los Angeles in 2010 (and then later Broadway) – before then a return to film felt intangible. But now might be exactly the right time to revisit this character. Crave Online caught up with Reubens during his promotion of Tron Uprising (Disney XD’s new animated series wherein Reubens has a role), where it sounded like he and producing partner Judd Apatow were well on their way:

“We just did a very, very quick lean and mean rewrite of it and we have a meeting with Judd Apatow this coming week, five days from now [as of Saturday].  I’m hoping we’re going into production soon after that. We’ve been sort of toying with talking a little bit about casting already so I’m excited to just be able to make a couple phone calls and ask people if they’d be in it.”

Reubens even goes so far as to assume Danny Elfman will likely be involved. After hearing Elfman’s score for Dark Shadows I would love to see him involved here. Few film composers have the ability to assemble memorable scores anymore – Elfman is still one of the good ones. This is a project I’ll be very interested to watch as it moves forward.

Where would you like to see Pee-Wee at this stage in his life? More importantly, who would you like to see direct?