About five years ago, when rumblings of a potential new “Pee-Wee” movie began amongst the “Office Space” avatars on a highly competitive message board, I was cautiously enthusiastic; ‘enthusiastic’ because I was confident that Paul Reubens probably still had enough of an edge to bring a new angle to a project that I’d blindingly love no matter how it turned out, but also cautious, figuring there’s no way the movie would actually ever get made.

Well, according to Contact Music, a “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” big-screen adaptation is due for 2009:

Comedy actor PAUL REUBEN is reprising his most famous character to make two new PEE-WEE HERMAN movies. Just months after vowing never to play the kids’ favourite again, Reubens is working on two new scripts – the first due for release in 2009, 19 years after he retired the beloved character.

He explains his change of heart to MTV, “I feel like the time is really ripe right now. A lot of the kids who grew up with the show are young adults. The college kids are middle-aged adults. I feel like I have enough of a built-in audience to make back an investment.”

How come I’m not as excited about this movie as my nostalgic, Chairry-blue colored heart tells me I should be? Am I pre-emptively sick of the demographic-pandering and overly-savvy viral marketing that any studio would insist on injecting into this project? Or does the image of a 55-year-old Reubens playing Pee-Wee make me feel like I’m at a KISS concert and regret some nonexistant bet that I lost?

I suppose ultimately, Comedy Actor PAUL REUBEN has my unswaying support regardless of what he chooses to do. But when I do eventually attend the midnight premiere of the “Playhouse” movie, I may just go ahead and set the “Big Adventure” dvd next to my tv for when I get home, just in case…

(via Celebitchy)