Remake of Ende’s “Neverending Story” planned

Forty years after Wolfgang Petersen’s version hit theaters, a new film adaptation of Michael Ende’s novel “The Neverending Story” is planned.

The executor of Ende’s will (1929-1995), Wolf-Dieter von Gronau, is making the rights for the film available to the companies Michael Ende Productions and See-Saw Films, those involved announced on Wednesday.

It is not yet known when and where the film will be released.

See-Saw’s previous productions include the graphic novel-based Netflix series “Heartstopper” and the Oscar-winning films “The King’s Speech” and “The Power of the Dog.”

The film adaptation of the material, produced by Bernd Eichinger, was one of the big box office successes of the 1980s. Author Ende was dissatisfied with it at the time. The premiere of the film, which attracted approximately 5 million cinemagoers in Germany alone, took place on April 4, 1984 in Munich. The fluffy lucky dragon Fuchur, the mountain turtle Uralte Morla and the catchy tune “Never Ending Story” by Giorgio Moroder, sung by Limahl, stuck in many minds.

The novel “The Neverending Story” was first published in 1979, sold millions of copies and was translated into approximately 45 languages. It is about the loner Bastiaan, who discovers a centuries-old fairytale book in an antiquarian bookshop and gets lost in it. He reads about the heroic Atreyu (often spelled Atreyu) and his dangerous mission to save the realm of Phantasia and its ruler, the Childlike Empress, from extinction by “the Void.” (saw/sda/dpa)