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Hollywood is always on the lookout for once-popular IPs that they can reboot for shows and films. The 1980s has been one of their favorite graveyards to rob for content. Now, they are rebooting “The Neverending Story” for streaming.

Is Disney bringing it back?

While many people assume that Disney is the company that is reviving the franchise, it is not. Those rights have been sold to Michael Ende Productions and See-Saw Films.

If the name Michael Ende sounds familiar, it’s because he wrote the original book in 1979. Three films were produced based on the book, the most famous of which was “The Neverending Story” in 1984. Two other films, “The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter” in 1990 and “The Neverending Story III” in 1994, were also released, but they didn’t do as well.

The rights were purchased from Ende’s executor, Wolf-Dieter von Gronau. Now, they are heading to film adaptations.

Exclusive: As the Cannes market kicks into gear, leading German producer Christian Becker, How to Be Single bilingual writer-director Christian Ditter and international sales agent Rocket Science are landing on the Croisette with Momo, one of their most ambitious projects to date.

The big-budget project, which is currently filming in Croatia, is the English-language adaptation of one of Michael Ende’s most beloved fantasy novels. Most will be familiar with Ende as the writer of The Neverending Story, which was adapted for the big screen in 1984 and became a cult classic in the U.S. and internationally (that title is currently getting a big new screen adaptation with See-Saw Films). But Momo is one of the German novelist’s most beloved stories, especially in Europe, and has been translated into more than 50 languages and has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide.

The story focuses on Momo (played by A Gentleman...

Apologies in advance if any eighties kids who watched the original The NeverEnding Story are triggered by the reference to "slow horses" in the headline above (justice for Artax!) But it's all in service of news that See-Saw Films, the company behind The King's Speech and, yes Slow Horses, has the rights to make a new adaptation of Michael Ende's 1979 tome.

For those who didn't grow up traumatised by the tragic interaction of a faithful steed and the Swamp of Sadness in the 1984 fantasy film, here's the basic (NeverEnding) storyline… Ende's tale focuses on shy, young, bookish Bastian who gets threatened a lot by bullies. Retreating into the relatively safety of an attic and a fictional world, he settles in to read the mysterious, titular fantasy book.

It, in turn, follows the heroic Atréyu and his mission to save the magical realm of Fantastica — chock full of dragons,...

Whether you have happy memories of Falkor flying through the skies or life-changingly-devastating memories of that horse dying in the mud, you probably remember The Neverending Story, director Wolfgang Petersen’s movie from 1984. You probably don’t remember the movie’s two sequels from the ’90s, but we’re not here to talk about those today.

Petersen’s movie was of course based on the same-titled 1979 novel from Michael Ende, and multiple brand new adaptations of that source material are now in the works.

Variety reports this morning that Michael Ende Productions and See-Saw Films are joining forces to bring The Neverending Story back to the big screen with “multiple live-action films.”

The website notes, “Variety hears that Ende’s estate had been fielding interest from across the globe over the last few years, including from studios and streamers.”

In the classic tale, “A troubled boy dives into a wondrous...

Children’s fantasy classic The Neverending Story is headed for a big screen reboot via a series of live-action features to be developed and produced by Michael Ende Productions and Oscar-winning See-Saw Films. The partners were granted the rights to Ende’s enduring novel by the author’s executor, Wolf-Dieter von Gronau.

First published in 1979, The NeverEnding Story was a huge hit in Germany, remaining on the bestseller list for years. It went on to be translated into 45 languages and has sold millions of copies worldwide. It also spawned films including the Wolfgang Peterson co-written and directed 1984 cult fantasy, as well as TV series, video games, pop songs, spinoff novels and stage plays. Deadline previously reported that streamers and studios, on both sides of the Atlantic, were chasing screen rights to revive the beloved property.

The Neverending Story begins in an old bookstore, where a young Bastian Balthasar Bux discovers the mysterious eponymous book.

After several attempts to reboot one of the great fantasy classics of world literature, See-Saw Films, producer of Oscar winners The King’s Speech and The Power of the Dog, has signed a deal to adapt The Neverending Story as a series of live-action feature films.

Michael Ende’s novel, published in German in 1979 and in English in 1983, follows the story of a young boy, Bastian Balthazar Bux, who falls into the world of the titular fantasy book The Neverending Story, entering the magical land of Fantastica. He becomes the hero of the story, tasked with saving Fantastica from destruction.

A global bestseller —it has been translated into 45 languages and has sold millions of copies worldwide — The Neverending Story was adapted as a trilogy of films in the 1980s and early 90s, most famously by Wolfgang Petersen in The Neverending Story in 1984. The two sequels, The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter...

Falkor flies again!

“The Neverending Story” — the beloved children’s fantasy novel from late German author Michael Ende that was famously adapted into the cult 1984 film — is being revived for the big screen once more, with a new joint-venture partnership between Michael Ende Productions and prestige tastemakers See-Saw Films bringing the world of Fantastica back to cinemas over multiple live-action films.

The news brings to an end the race for one of the hottest fantasy properties yet to be tapped for modern audiences. Variety hears that Ende’s estate had been fielding interest from across the globe over the last few years, including from studios and streamers.

See-Saw — no stranger to adapting well-known literature for screen having been behind features including “Lion” and “The Power of the Dog” and recent TV hits “Heartstopper” and “Slow Horses” — has now teamed with Michael Ende Productions to develop and produce the films. The...

Exclusive: Momo, one of the best-loved works by The Neverending Story scribe Michael Ende, is getting a big-canvas, English-language screen adaption from leading German producer Christian Becker and bilingual writer-director Christian Ditter (How To Be Single).

The ambitious movie version of Ende’s popular fantasy novel will chart the story of the eponymous Momo, an orphan girl who must do battle with the soulless and otherworldly ‘grey men’ who stealthily take over her city and steal time. Ende’s book has long been considered a critique of consumerism, stress and unfeeling individualism, themes that should strongly resonate in a contemporary context.

Published in more than 40 languages, this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s first publication and producers are hoping to begin filmmaking towards the end of 2023.

“For almost 35 years it was impossible to make a new adaptation of Momo,” explains Becker, who...

Are you ready to be reunited with Atreyu and Falkor in the mythical land of Fantasia? With fantasy epics being a hot commodity with properties like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings extending their universes with new shows, Deadline reports that classic children’s favorite, The Neverending Story, is now in a bidding war for the rights to the fantasy IP.

The German estate for the creator and author of the property, Michael Ende, is seeing many interested parties from streaming companies and studios. There are multi-million dollars being thrown around to secure the rights for the fantasy epic. The company, Ava, which represents the Ende estate, has yet to comment on the activity.

The Neverending Story was a classic children’s film from 1984. It was about a boy, who mourns for his late mother, and gets tormented by bullies at his school. To flee the aggressors, he seeks refuge in a bookshop,...

"It's a never ending biiiiiiiiiding waaaaaaar! Ahahah Ahahah Ahahahhhhh....."

The fantasy classic and source of an entire generation's childhood trauma, "The NeverEnding Story" might be the next major IP to see an onscreen reboot. Thanks to a report from Deadline, it appears as if studios across the globe are all vying for the rights to Michael Ende's book, which became a beloved film by Wolfgang Petersen. Deadline claims there are multi-million dollar offers on the table.

In the years that followed the success of Ende's novel, AVAInternational published six different novels called "Legends of Fantastica," which use existing parts of the plot and characters of "The NeverEnding Story" to tell brand new tales. This means that "The NeverEnding Story" still has plenty of new angles to explore, and plenty of new ways to inspire children to have their first existential crisis. Ava, the German agency that represents Ende's estate,...

Exclusive: Children’s classic The NeverEnding Story could become the next major fantasy property to get a screen reboot.

While The Rings of Power and House Of The Dragon duke it out for TV ratings, I recently asked one European studio head which fantasy property could be the next IP to pop. Their answer: The NeverEnding Story.

It turns out a handful of streamers and studios, on both sides of the Atlantic, are chasing screen rights to the beloved property by the late German author Michael Ende. We have spoken to multiple interested parties and hear there are multi-million dollar offers on the table. German agency Ava represents the estate but declined to comment.

The NeverEnding Story follows a boy who happens upon a magical book that tells of a young warrior given the task of stopping the Nothing, a dark force [Stranger Things, anyone?], from engulfing the wonderland world of Fantastica.