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NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > PHIL HARTMAN WILL NOT RETURN FOR NEW PEE WEE HERMAN MOVIE
PHIL HARTMAN WILL NOT RETURN FOR NEW PEE WEE HERMAN MOVIE
January 15 2011
Hollywood, CA – For a few years in the 1980’s and early 1990’s there was no bigger star than Pee Wee Herman. Strange as it may sound, the fictional man-child was huge, on television, on the red carpet, and a star on both the big and small screen. 
That huge success made Pee Wee a cultural icon for an entire generation, but personal indiscretions and a changing atmosphere ended all that abruptly after Pee Wee’s real life alter ego, Paul Reubens, came into the picture.
Still, Herman remains very potent in people’s memories and his legacy – which also started the careers of others such as Tim Burton, Laurence Fishburne, and Jimmy Smits – remains strong to this day, more than twenty years since his show went off the air. Because of that continued affection for the character, and Reubens’ own decline into relative anonymity, it makes sense that all these years later there is a new movie in production. Though Reubens own age of nearly sixty would seem preclude such a project, with the backing of super-producer Judd Apatow it appears the Pee Wee will once again grace film screens in the near future. Unfortunately, not everyone is so excited about the project, including one-time collaborator and co-creator Phil Hartman who will not be joining the project due to a falling out between himself and Reubens, as well as his untimely death in 1998.
“The project is very much going ahead. Paul has been trying to get this thing off the ground for a number of years, it has been a passion project for a long time, and with Apatow now behind the scenes pulling the strings it seems like it’s finally going to get off the ground and we are all excited,” said a Pee Wee insider. “Paul really feels like he left something on the floor back in the nineties. He was sick of the character and really wanted to get out of things, but he realizes now that that was misguided and he feels like there is still something to give, still a story to tell.”
Pee Wee last appeared in the big screen in ‘Big Top Pee Wee’ released in 1988 but has appeared in numerous venues in recent years.
“The reaction of people, both old fans and new fans, has encouraged Paul to continue
to push for the new movie. He realizes that there is still a big audience out there for the character and he still loves it so he wants to make sure that both sides are satisfied,” continued the insider. “He wants to bring as many elements of the original universe back to the project and that includes a number of the original players. Obviously people like Burton and Fishburne would be too expensive to bring back, but some of the smaller players could certainly make an appearance. Unfortunately it is true, Phil Hartman who was a big part of the Pee Wee character will not be returning.”
Reubens and Hartman began their careers together in ‘The Groundlings’ where the Pee Wee character was developed. Hartman co-wrote the first film and appeared on the Pee Wee television show before a personal disagreement ended the working relationship.
“Paul has never talked about what happened between the two but it was big and enough so that they have never spoken again. It isn’t something that made either side very happy, but these kinds of things happen in life. It’s just the nature of the whole thing,” continued the insider. “In an ideal world Paul would love to have Phil back, to bring it all full circle but unfortunately the fracture between them is too huge and the fact that Phil has been dead for years doesn’t help any. I mean it’s really tough to make up when one person just isn’t around, and unfortunately that means no Phil Hartman for the new movie. Sorry fans.”
Hartman was shot to death by his wife in 1988. He has only appeared on screen once since then, a guest shot in the defunct TV show ‘Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child’. The new Pee Wee film is tentatively scheduled for a 2011 release.
Samantha Dryden, Entertainment Correspondent
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