Although Red Riding Hood’s dramatic drop-off at the box office and rather tepid reviews would suggest that maybe American audiences are already tired of dark spins on familiar fairy tales and classic children’s literature (and well before the bulk of them have even debuted), Hollywood continues to forge ahead anyway, bolstered by the faith in their casts and the power of brand recognition. Oh, and telling a compelling story, we guess. We’ve long been reporting on the crush of competing Snow White, Wizard Of Oz, Hansel And Gretel, and Pinocchio projects—in addition to updates on Jack The Giant Killer and The Little Mermaid, and the upcoming fairy tale catchall TV shows Once Upon A Time and Grimm—and wondering how these can possibly avoid canceling each other out, and preemptively exhausting America’s tolerance for stories of magic and myth. And still, it seems that’s nothing compared to the growing five-way showdown between Peter Pan projects, which The Hollywood Reporter outlines here.
Among the spins on J.M. Barrie’s story said to be in or near development: the annoyingly Web 2.0-titled The.Never.Land, which recasts the relationship between Peter and Wendy with a “Twilight-ish” spin; an untitled “Pan family adventure concept” from Wedding Crashers producer Jeff Rake; Neverland, a SyFy miniseries and “prequel of sorts” with Keira Knightley playing Tinker Bell; Neverland, a spec script that recasts Peter Pan as a child-abducting villain and Captain Hook as the hero; and finally, the previously reported, Channing Tatum-starring Pan, a “reimagining” that asks the question, “What if Peter Pan and Captain Hook were brothers, and also Channing Tatum was in it for some reason?”
In considering these, the THR article promises to reveal “Why Peter Pan Projects Are Infiltrating Hollywood,” but other than joking that “there must be fairy dust floating above” the city, it never really gets around to answering that question. Unless “fairy dust” is code for “desperation,” or some sort of drug that allows you to look at four competing Peter Pan projects and still have the confidence to be like, “Fuck them, we’re going to be the one that makes it.” And if anyone has a line on where to score some of that, hit us up. It sounds amazing.