I fell in love with Washington Irving on a fall day at my English University, sitting on the grounds of Keele Hall, and reading Rip Van Winkle
for the first time. I was familiar with the story of course, indeed it is hard not to be, yet I found myself being drawn in by Irving's words despite, or maybe because of, the familiarity of the story. I was amazed to discover the political notions behind the story, and I fell into the depth of a good tale. Irving's stories are timeless, and one of them in particular holds a solid place in popular culture.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollowwas written a mere nine miles from the town in which I grew up, but the imagery is a far cry from its writer's location. It is considered one of the first pieces of American fiction, and forgive me if I find it ironic that it was written during Irving's sojourn in Birmingham, England. Inspired by a German folk tale, it first appeared in movie theaters in 1922 as The Headless Horseman
, starring Will Rogers as Ichabod Crane. In 1949 the Walt Disney Company tackled the story in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
, combining a telling of Sleepy Hollow with Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. In 1958 the Sleepy Hollow section was separated and shown independently of Mr Toad. Jeff Goldblum, Ed Begley, Jr., and Brent Carver have all donned Ichabod's bloomers through the years on small and silver screens. These days of course popular memories of Ichabod Crane belong to Tim Burton and Johnny Depp
. It has been a stage play, a Broadway musical, and an opera, and now it is once again to be a TV show.
Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci, the creative team that brought us Fringe
, are developing the show, with Les Wiseman, of the Total Recall remake, lined up to direct the pilot. In a modern reworking of the tale a la Sherlock, Ichabod Crane will be working with local law enforcement. There will be a female sheriff, but no word yet as to whether or not she will be Sheriff Von Tassell.
But hold the phone, while Kurtzman and Orci are making their pitch to FOX, CBS, ABC, and NBC, the creative minds behind Missing
are pitching an Ichabod-as-FBI-agent show to the CW. While competing networks could not keep alive two shows about the shenanigans backstage at a comedy show in 2006 (30 Rock
and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), with the signing on of both Grimm
and Once Upon a Time
for second seasons there seems to be room on the airwaves for similar projects to compete. But will two shows about the same 12,000 word story be able to survive? Only time will tell, so I think I'll go take a nap and find out which one survives. Wake me up in a decade or two.
While I do that, sit back and enjoy the delightful Johnny Depp and the ever lovely Christina Ricci:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYHt8SdUj-U[/youtube]
