Washington Irving’s short story ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ has been adapted for film and television many times, dating as far back to the 1920s. The best-known version remains Tim Burton’s SLEEPY HOLLOW from 1999, the first major misstep in Burton’s 13-year run of serious crimes against cinema.
However, story remains a timeless, and like most classic literary works is ripe for adapting time and again – now it seems a new TV version may be in the works. The project – once again named SLEEPY HOLLOW – is the brainchild of writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who will place the action in a modern-day setting, with hero Ichabod Crane teaming with a female sheriff to investigate supernatural goings-on in a town wracked by a a good-versus-evil battle. It all sounds a bit ‘supernatural mystery of the week’, in the vein of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and SUPERNATURAL, which will come as little surprise as the writing duo formerly worked on JJ Abrams’ FRINGE (a sci-fi spin on the same formula).
This could be an interesting project, however – whilst the writers’ FRINGE and HAWAII FIVE-O ran for numerous seasons (not to mention their involvement with the excellent STAR TREK reboot), they’ve had a hand in their share of nonsense too, most notably TRANSFORMERS. Add to the mix Len Wiseman, director of the UNDERWORLD movies, and there’s a potential recipe for disaster. But they say that TV is a writer’s medium, not director’s, and Kurtzman and Orci have more hits than misses to their names.
Though Tim Burton almost closed the book on this legendary story, there could be life in the old headless horseman yet.
Source: Deadline
