Josh Brolin, Tim Burton Making 'Hunchback of Notre Dame'

Josh Brolin apparently liked the disfiguring appliances of Jonah Hex almost as much as critic Armond White did. The Hollywood Reporter has news the actor is attached to strap a pillow on his back for a new Warner Bros. adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame--one that Tim Burton is in talks to direct following his Johnny Depp-starring soap opera adaptation, Dark Shadows. Burton's participation is dependent on the script--Sherlock Holmes's Kieran and Michele Mulroney have just been hired to write, implying Warner is taking this in the same action-adventure direction as Don Quixote--but Brolin seems to be more of a lock, so look forward to seeing him limp around a set, another good-looking actor stealing away one of the few parts available for the struggling hunchbacked actor. Hunchbacked man cannot subsist on Igor parts alone, Brolin.

If all this news sounds vaguely familiar, it's not just because virtually every film that's not a remake is now an action-adventure version of a classic tale; last year, Paramount announced essentially the same idea with G.I. Joe/Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. So those films should go well with our three Snow Whites, two Hansel and Gretels, and two to three Wizard of Ozes.