After the success of Syfy’s “12 Monkeys,” another Terry Gilliam-directed movie is getting a TV makeover as Miramax announced today that it has hired screenwriter Ehren Kruger to create a new series for television based on The Brothers Grimm.
Kruger, whose prolific screenwriting credits include The Ring and the last three films in the Transformers franchise, will build off the origin story introduced in his screenplay for the 2005 feature film The Brothers Grimm, starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, which grossed over $105 million globally. The new television series will follow the swashbuckling adventures of brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, who discover startling mythology and supernatural stakes behind the folklore sweeping 19th century Europe.
Miramax Vice President of Television Daniel Pipski identified the project as a potential television series from Miramax’s expansive library of titles and brought it to Zanne Devine, Miramax’s Executive Vice President of Film & TV. Said Devine, “The tales of the Brothers Grimm are beloved around the world and offer an endless well of story and character to draw from. It’s a natural fit for television.”
Added Pipski, “We reached out to Ehren Kruger and producing partner Daniel Bobker to see if they had any interest in making ‘The Brothers Grimm’ movie into a TV show and the pitch Ehren came back with blew us away. We’re thrilled to be working with a writer of his caliber.”
Kruger commented, “The original stories the Brothers set out to collect were not for the faint of heart and we’ll be making a show that gets back to those origins and their cautionary, scary, thrilling spirit.”
Kruger and Bobker will executive produce “The Brothers Grimm” television series under their Bobker/Kruger Films banner alongside Devine and Pipski for Miramax.
Though originally conceived as a potential movie franchise, The Brothers Grimm was a contentious production, as chronicled in Bob McCabe’s 2006 book “Dreams and Nightmares,” which describes Gilliam’s frequent clashes with producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein having a negative effect on the film. After nearly two-years in post-production, the $88 million dollar production bombed at the domestic box office, though did well overseas. Interestingly, Gilliam begins his audio commentary on the film’s DVD admitting his dislike of Kruger’s script, which he and Tony Grisoni did uncredited rewrites on.
