{"id":42822,"date":"2025-08-03T19:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/42822\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T19:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:07:08","slug":"behind-the-cult-classics-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/42822\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Cult Classic’s Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tForty years ago, Paul Reubens and Tim Burton took viewers on a ride to remember with Pee-wee\u2019s Big Adventure. The film centers on Reubens as titular Pee-wee Herman<\/a>, whose hunt for his stolen bicycle leads him to the Alamo. As a member of the L.A. comedy troupe the Groundlings, Reubens developed the childlike character and played him in the 1980s in live stage shows, an HBO special and appearances on Late Night With David Letterman. \u201cIt dawned on me that I could actually become Pee-wee Herman,\u201d Reubens told THR in 2020 about his alter ego.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a run of sold-out performances, the comedian landed a deal with Warner Bros. to write a Pee-wee feature. While on the studio lot, Reubens noticed people riding bikes and asked for one of his own. After being taken with the refurbished 1940s Schwinn he was given, Reubens retooled his movie to focus on the bike. \u201cWe had worked for three months, just trying to find a story,\u201d says Michael Varhol, who co-wrote the script with Reubens and another Groundlings standout, Phil Hartman. \u201cWe found the bike, and that\u2019s when all the pieces of the puzzle started fitting together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter turning down Warners\u2019 suggested director, Reubens was granted a short window to land a better fit; he found it in Burton, who had never directed a feature but whose horror-comedy short Frankenweenie wowed Reubens. Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton and Jan Hooks rounded out the cast, while composer Danny Elfman marked the first of his many collaborations with Burton.<\/p>\n

\n\tPee-wee\u2019s Big Adventure hit theaters Aug. 9, 1985, collected $40 million ($122 million today) and became a cult classic that spawned two sequels, including Netflix\u2019s 2016 film Pee-wee\u2019s Big Holiday from producer Judd Apatow. Reubens also played the character for five seasons of CBS\u2019 Pee-wee\u2019s Playhouse.<\/p>\n

\n\tBig Adventure endures \u2014 the Alamo recently acquired Pee-wee\u2019s bike for display. Daily, who played love interest Dottie, told THR that she frequently exchanges lines with fans: \u201cGuys will tell me, \u2018I\u2019m a rebel, Dottie.\u2019 And I\u2019ll ask them to the drive-in.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the July 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forty years ago, Paul Reubens and Tim Burton took viewers on a ride to remember with Pee-wee\u2019s Big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,30445,337,30446],"class_list":{"0":"post-42822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-hollywood-flashback","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-pee-wee-herman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}