Bryan Singer to helm 'Munsters' remake

X-Men and Superman Returns director Bryan Singer will be directing the pilot for one-hour dramatic re-imagining of 1960s show The Munsters, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Executive producing the show alongside Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies), Singer's version will be an "edgier and slightly darker take exploring origins of Herman and Lily Munster (originally played by Fred Gwynne and Yvonne De Carlo) and how they arrived at the famed 1313 Mockingbird Lane address." The original show, which aired 70 episodes from 1964-66 on CBS, featured a Frankenstein monster (Gwynne) created by a Dracula-esque Grandpa (Al Lewis) as a mate for his vampire daughter (De Carlo). Together, they had a werewolf son (Butch Patrick), a human niece and a pet dragon. Yup, sounds like it's just right for a dramatic treatment.

In the words of Gwynne himself, from his character Jud Crandall of Pet Sematary, "Sometimes dead is better."