Pee-Wee Herman Movies You'll Never Get To Watch
Paul Reubens' death on July 30 at the age of 70 bittersweetly means that some things will never come to pass regarding his planned projects. Reubens had a strong opinion about the Pee-wee Herman character continuing on beyond his lifetime; he had considered selling digital scans of his face, unmade scripts, and other ephemera. "I don't for one second feel I'm George Lucas or that Pee-wee Herman the franchise is Star Wars, but it's worth something, you know? And I feel like I could step away from it," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2020. But with the actor gone and no stated plans regarding ownership of the character, it's fairly unlikely we'll see more of Pee-wee's adventures.
Naturally, every script written by Reubens created for his Pee-wee character during his lifetime didn't manage to make it to the big screen. Nonetheless, two projects in particular — one a long-format story focusing on life at the Playhouse made for kids of all ages, the other a dark comedy intended solely for adults — almost broke out of the gate and became films. While neither project was made into a movie, the fascinating story of how they were sculpted will exist forever.
The Playhouse almost had a big adventure
The first unmade Pee-wee Herman project first came to life in the late 2000s. Paul Reubens told SFGATE in 2007 that he'd written a screenplay that would serve to reunite the then-living main cast of "Pee-wee's Playhouse." Reubens revealed that the script featured the show's beloved cast of characters leaving Puppetland to explore the world outside. "This is a road picture, an epic adventure story where all of the characters leave the Playhouse when one of them disappears," Reubens told Time in 2006.
Reubens jokingly mentioned on one occasion that he wanted Johnny Depp to step in for him to play Pee-wee — the actor's response, as Reubens told MTV News in 2007, was "Let me think about it." Though he also said that he was hoping to roll cameras soon on the movie version of "Pee-wee's Playhouse," the film was never made. Instead, Reubens ended up doing a live show featuring the character on Broadway, which led to the actor playing Pee-wee Herman once more for Netflix in "Pee-wee's Big Holiday" in 2016.
This serious take on Pee-wee's story was almost directed by Judd Apatow
The other unmade Pee-wee Herman project would have seen the character coping with some serious situations. Paul Reubens called it "the dark Pee-wee movie" in 2007 when he was interviewed by MTV. It was a script whose first draft Reubens completed in the late 1990s, but could never quite get made. The film's central concept sees Pee-wee experience a brush with fame after a single featuring his yodeling hits the top of the charts. He goes to Hollywood, gets seduced by film producers and glitter, and soon finds himself in the grips of addiction, causing him to abuse and betray all those loyal to him. The film was also supposed to include a prison stint for the beloved character.
The end result was slated to be a cautionary tale. Reubens compared the potential film to one infamous example of celebrity culture; during a 2020 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said, "I've referred to it as the Valley of the Dolls Pee-wee movie. It's about fame."
Reubens pitched the project to Judd Apatow, who turned it down to make "Pee-wee's Big Holiday" with him. Netflix also rejected the film. Interest in the dark and gritty project was later revived by "Uncut Gems" directors Josh and Benny Safdie. There were also rumors that a rich fan of the franchise wanted to help finance the movie.
Reubens told The Hollywood Reporter that he had faith the film would be made someday. "I do feel like it's going to probably happen," he says. "I have a couple of people that are interested. But this is Hollywood. A couple people interested and five bucks will get you five bucks." And no one would know that fact better than Paul Reubens.