Tim Burton to Get Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

Next year, director Tim Burton will be among 25 other (real and fictional) celebrities and pop culture icons to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Other recipients for 2009 include:

Hugh Jackman, Ben Kingsley, The Village People, Tinkerbell, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Cameron Diaz, Robert Downey Jr., Leslie Caron, Charles Durning, Ralph Fiennes, William Petersen, Kyra Sedgwick, John Stamos, Mark Burnett, Chuck Lorre, Kenny "Baby Face" Edmonds, Dave Koz, The Miracles, Doug Morris, Rush, Shakira, KFI radio personality Bill Handel and KCRW host Harry Shearer, who also provides voices for characters on "The Simpsons."

Producers Behind "Frankenweenie"

IMDb.com has stated two names behind the stop-motion animated feature-length version of Frankenweenie: Allison Abbate and Don Hahn.

While it's always good to be cautious with IMDb.com's reports, it seems very likely that the two will be producing the film.

Allison Abbate was a producer on Corpse Bride, as well as other animated films (stop-motion and otherwise) including Brad Bird's The Iron Giant and currently Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox and Frankenweenie are both set for a 2009 release, with the latter scheduled for December.

Allison Abbate and co-director Mike Johnson promoting
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride at Comic-Con in 2005

Don Hahn was also a producer on many of the animated films from the so-called "Disney Renaissance" of the late 1980s and 1990s, such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. He was also a leading producer on the 3D theatrical re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2006. Like the re-release of the cult classic musical, Frankenweenie will be shown in 3D in theaters, among numerous other future Disney releases. Pixar and Disney have decided to work exclusively in 3D for many of their upcoming films, on various forms of animation and even on some live-action movies. Specifically, Hahn will be an executive producer on Frankenweenie.

Don Hahn

Tim Burton will also be a producer on the stop-motion film, reportedly.

The movie website also stated that filming has commenced on Frankenweenie. This would make sense, as stop-motion animation is a tedious process (despite the film being deliberately low-budget, as Burton wanted). No updates on the screenplay or casting have come up. Frequent Burton collaborator Chris Lebenzon will likely serve as editor.

Again, it is always good to be wary of announcements on IMDb, but we feel confident with this information (plus, the author of these articles is already getting very anxious for these upcoming Burton films). We will keep you posted of any updates!

"Alice in Wonderland" Release Date Announced

With the writers' strike now officially over, Walt Disney Pictures has announced release dates for several films for 2009 and 2010. Among them is Tim Burton's upcoming adaptation of the fantasy Alice in Wonderland. The film, which will be a combination of performance capture animation and live-action, is set to be released on March 19, 2010.

The release date for Burton's other Disney project, Frankenweenie, was not mentioned in the article. But this is likely because it will be an animated film, and the article covered information on live-action (or mostly live-action) features. Frankenweenie is said to be released sometime in 2009.

Burton on New "Frankenweenie"

Scifi.com had some quotes from Tim Burton on his upcoming, stop-motion version of Frankenweenie. The film, based on Burton's live-action short of the same name from 1984, will now be a feature-length movie, which is what Burton had originally wanted to do. "We're going to do that real low-budget," the filmmaker said. Burton assured that this will not be the exact same movie as his original. "The thing that excites me about it and that will make it different is that when I look at my original drawings, there are certain things that are in those that I couldn't get in the live action when I made the film. So I'm quite excited to try to get a certain emotion and other characters in the new version, and I want to make it a slightly bigger story."

"I'm such a fan of old movies, and I think that just stays with you," Burton added. "It doesn't leave you. Those kinds of things, whether you think about them or not, they just are in your DNA, and they stay with you. Even if I was doing a romantic comedy I would probably stick a bunch of shadows in there or whatever."

One piece of artwork by Tim Burton for his 1984 Frankenweenie.

Frankenweenie will be shown in 3-D in participating theaters, and released by Walt Disney Pictures, in 2009. This may seem like a short time, but stop-motion features, though tedious to make, are considerably less expensive than CGI movies (usually only a third of the expense), and, with enough diligent, talented animators working on many scenes simultaneously, the film can be pulled off in a few years. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride from 2005 was also accomplished in this amount of time, having been done so with new technology that exceeded the abilities and time spent on animating from the days of The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993.