Matt Lucas on "Wonderland," Depp and Burton

Matt Lucas may now be best known to people outside of the UK as Tweedledee and Tweedledum in Alice in Wonderland (this is his first American film). But for playing such rotund "fat boys" (as the Red Queen describes them), Lucas looks different, says the Los Angeles Times.

“I’ve lost 50 pounds since I made the movie,” said Lucas as he declined a free bucket of buttery popcorn at the world premiere. “No popcorn for me.”

Lucas admits that he isn't exactly Hollywood's vision of pretty, but that doesn't stop him.

“I adore watching people like Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill but I wouldn’t necessarily cast myself in those roles,” Lucas said. “They are people that audiences can easily identify with. I don’t play so easily the regular guy. I might be more like a Wallace Shawn who always plays the quirky guy, the eccentric characters.”

For Tweedles, Lucas went for “corpulent boys, both childish and child-like, juvenile in the extreme.” To help Lucas pull off twin duty, actor Ethan Cohn was brought in as a double to stand in as the “other brother” while Lucas was doing his lines. Cohn became fast friends with Lucas and says it’s been hard to watch him suffer in the wake of McGee’s death.

“God knows how someone deals with what he went through, but he’s gone about it in a very smart and logical way,” Cohn said. “He’s grieving and he’s going through the emotions that people go through, but he is always moving forward.”

Lucas said he likes Los Angeles – “Some people think it’s a cynical place but I admire its ambitions” – and he was dazzled by working on a film with such a strong cast and director.

“You get warmth in spades from Johnny and Tim [Burton]. You get briefly included in their warm friendship. In Johnny’s trailer, and this betrays a confidence perhaps but I hope he will forgive me, on the refrigerator there's a drawing of the Mad Hatter by Johnny’s kids. And it said, ‘Good Luck Dad.’ I found that so wonderful.”


Making Wonderland was a complicated process. But even with a picture with a budget of over $200 million and stuck in a sea of green screen, Lucas admired Tim Burton's professionalism, and the trust he invested in his cast and crew, many of which he has collaborated with before.

“He employs people he likes then he really trusts them to build the character and the performance,” Lucas said. “I was surprised that the first take is always the actors’ take. With all the money invested into the project and how little time people have to make the movie. He let actors have the first take and then work with them to craft – keep that, turn that bit down, try for this. He gave a lot of guidance and I was grateful for that, but it came with trust.”

Lucas was less enamored with the green-screen set. “It can be grueling to be in a large green room where everything is just…green; Consistently, constantly, undeniable, unashamedly green; and not even different shades of green at that. It’s a snot room. The booger world.”

Some of the actors found the green screen nauseating and difficult, but Lucas worked through it by imagining the world that would appear on the screens when the project was completed.

“It was very notional,” Lucas said. “You have to imagine there are trees and castles and the ground. And instead of the Bandersnatch there’s a man holding a stick with a cross on the end of it made out of masking tape, which you have to imagine is the most terrifying thing you’ve ever seen. And I don’t have stick phobia. Masking tape, however, makes me cringe. And weep. You have to use your imagination quite a lot but that happens in television, too. You need to pretend there isn’t an old man in the corner chewing his gum and checking his watch and waiting for you to finish the take and give a very emotional performance.”

Lucas said he hopes to work with Burton again, especially since the filmmaker works in worlds where eccentric characters are at every turn. He also said he hopes to absorb some of Burton’s sense of wonder.

“He brings with him the enthusiasm of someone making their first film,” Lucas said. “You have the expertise of someone who has been doing it a long, long time but there is still something boyish in his excitement. I think the same can be said of Johnny Depp. It was just ambition on display and enthusiasm and excitement and craft. They seemed pleased to be there. I know I was.”

Click here for the entire Matt Lucas article from the Los Angeles Times. Lucas goes on to describe his career and ambitions beyond Wonderland and more.

"Alice" #1 at Box Office: $116 Mil. Opening Weekend

Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo has all the details on the successful opening weekend of Alice in Wonderland:

Audiences clamored to see Alice in Wonderland (2010) as if they were late for an important date, delivering a $116.1 million opening weekend. That's more in just three days than the total gross of any other 2010 release. Alice's corpulent start drove the highest-grossing March weekend ever: overall business boomed 69 percent over the same timeframe last year, when Watchmen debuted.

Showing on approximately 7,400 screens at 3,728 sites, Alice in Wonderland's opening stands as not only the all time biggest for the month of March, but as the highest-grossing ever for a movie released outside of May, July or November and sixth overall. It's a career best for director Tim Burton, surpassing Planet of the Apes (2001)'s $68.5 million, and second best for top-billed actor Johnny Depp, behind the second Pirates of the Caribbean. Alice marks the seventh collaboration between Mr. Burton and Mr. Depp, and its debut handily eclipsed their previous high together, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ($56.2 million).

Around 70 percent or over $80 million of Alice in Wonderland's opening was viewed through the 3D looking glass, topping Avatar's $55 million as the biggest 3D launch ever. Alice played at a record 2,251 3D sites, compared to Avatar's 2,038. Alice also set a new opening milestone for IMAX, grossing an estimated $11.9 million at 188 sites (included in the totals). The previous benchmark was Avatar's $9.5 million at 178 sites. Combined, the 3D and IMAX ticket premiums over normal prices appear to have added about $22 million to Alice's gross.

To hit $116.1 million out-of-the-gate, Alice in Wonderland benefitted from a combination of factors, including the involvement of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, who are among Hollywood's few bankable name talents, batting in their quirky wheelhouse, and the good will built up by Avatar for 3D events. Distributor Walt Disney Pictures' marketing campaign was not only omnipresent but spot on in its presentation: it first grabbed people's attention with a flashy entre into Wonderland through Mad Hatter, Red Queen and other wacky characters, then it lured audiences further by grounding the fantasy with Alice and presenting her adventure story.

All told, Alice in Wonderland appealed well beyond the family crowd suggested by its Disney branding and Lewis Caroll's famous literary source. According to Disney's exit polling, 39 percent of the audience was parents and their children, while 36 percent was couples. The basic gender and age demographics came in at 55 percent female and 54 percent under 25 years old.

At the foreign box office, shiny and new Alice in Wonderland unseated reigning stalwart Avatar, debuting to an estimated $94 million from 40 territories or around 60 percent of the overseas market. Add in the domestic take, and Alice's worldwide weekend was an estimated $210.1 million, ranking as the 14th biggest worldwide launch ever. The United Kingdom was Alice's top foreign market with an estimated $16.8 million (the highest non-sequel start ever there), followed by Italy ($13.9 million, also a non-sequel record), Russia ($12.3 million) and Australia ($9.2 million). Meanwhile, Avatar was off 42 percent, generating $22.8 million and bringing its total to $1.88 billion.

Zanuck on "Wonderland," "Dark Shadows"

FilmShaft's Martyn Conterio has an exclusive interview with legendary producer Richard D. Zanuck. Zanuck, who has produced all of Tim Burton's live-action features since 2001, talked about Alice in Wonderland, the upcoming adaptation of Dark Shadows, and more. Here's the entire interview:

MC: How did you get involved with this project?

RZ: I’ve produced the last five Tim Burton movies and so I’m part of that team. When Disney approached Tim about doing this, that was about three years ago, I came on board. I’m a very hands-on producer…I’m there every day and I’ve been on this from the very beginning.

Did you know Alice in Wonderland well before you took on the film?

I can’t pinpoint when I first read the books or may have even been read to me as a young person or maybe as a student. I can’t remember exactly when, but when we decided to make the movie I went back and read them and I was amazed that most of the characters were very familiar to me. It was like they’d been implanted in my subconscious because I felt I knew all these characters and know the setting and all of that…it all came back to life. And that’s an example of why this book has endured throughout one hundred and thirty-five years because we’re all familiar with it. It’s permeated culture.

The production wasn’t a typical Hollywood endeavour – it was all green-screen. Had you experienced anything like that before?

No, nor had Tim. We started the picture with live action down in Plymouth. We shot ten days there for the beginning and end of the picture…you know, before she goes down the rabbit hole and after she comes out. We went back to Los Angeles, at Culver Studios, to do all of the green-screen. It was only forty days of shooting, actually, but almost two years of computer generated animation work, there’s some mo-cap work. It was very tricky technically. I think it’s the first time that all three elements: computer generated, mo-cap and live actors all worked into the same scenes. Also Alice’s size goes from six inches to seven feet tall and her regular size and so the actors playing with her had to be adjusted. Matt Lucas had to work on stilts! It was very tricky, especially when they weren’t together. The eye lines had to match up. We had all kinds of charts where everybody’s size was measured very carefully.

Did you ever think while making it, “Is this going to work?”

I always felt it would work because Tim’s a genius and nobody has that imagination. He hadn’t done anything this complicated before we had Ken Ralston who has won four Academy Awards and nominated a dozen times. He actually started and helped invent a lot of the process. I think his best work is with Alice. He was supervising even the green-screen stuff. Between he and Tim, he would imagine it, but it was Ken and about four hundred people behind him on computers putting what Tim imagined – frame by frame – onto the film. It was very labour intensive and tricky to co-ordinate all that. Tim had a good team behind him…he’s an artist…a real artist.

Tell me how you cast Mia Wasikowska as Alice?

Alice was a part that everybody wanted to play, regardless of their age. We had stars who were totally wrong…everybody thought they should play Alice. So we had a whole slue of volunteers. Tim and myself, from the very beginning, wanted to go with a fresh face. We didn’t want a Hollywood starlet or somebody that would we’d seen before. We went on a massive campaign with the casting people in Australia, casting was done in this country and in the United States. Throughout the world really…and kept narrowing and narrowing it down and finally brought twenty people to the UK. We tested them and got that down to eight. Mia was one of them. She came over three times in total. We did a full scale, studio screen test with our crew and the wardrobe people…make-up…a complete test and Mia came out on top.

Have you any more plans to work with Burton since you’re on a roll?

Yes, I’m going to be doing Dark Shadows with Johnny (Depp) and Tim later towards the end of the year. He’s got to do another Pirates movie. But we’re shooting over here (London) even though the movie is set in Portland, Maine. We’ve got the stages at Pinewood lined up.

Obviously you’re a legendary film producer…

That sounds like age…(laughs)

You’ve made classic after classic, do you find films easier to make now than back then?

It depends on what kind of film you’re talking about. My wife and I made Driving Miss Daisy and that was a very difficult movie to get financed. An old Jewish lady and a black chauffeur…nobody was interested in that subject. We spent more time on bended knee…over a year of begging people. If you have a picture like Alice in Wonderland which is a famous title, add Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, 3D, Disney – which is a big selling point…it’s a slam dunk! You don’t have to beg people to do that kind of film. It all depends on what story you’re doing to tell. The bigger, wide canvas ones are easier than the small ones. But they’re much, much more expensive to make…but that’s how it is.

Out of all your films, do you have a personal favourite?

I probably do…but you’d have to kill me to get it out of me (laughs). I hate to use the phrase, “they’re all my children” because it’s so over-used, but it’s true. Each one is an experience and a very unique experience and different. The box office can be different too…so maybe my favourite one is considered a failure. I made Steven Spielberg’s first two pictures – Sugarland Express and Jaws. I must say Sugerland Express and that whole experience of working with Steven on his first film is one I’d have to rank very highly in terms of gratification.

Richard Zanuck, thank you.

Thank you.

"Alice in Wonderland" World Premiere Footage

Alice in Wonderland had its world premiere on Thursday, February 25th, at the Odeon theater in London's Leicester Square. Here's an hour's worth of footage:

Here's a link from AFP.

From ustream:

UK Exhibitors End "Alice" Boycott

Good news for European fans of Tim Burton and Alice in Wonderland: Vue Entertainment and Odeon have come to agreements with the Walt Disney Co. and will be showing Alice in their cinemas.

Odeon said in a statement it was "pleased to announce that, following detailed negotiations with the Walt Disney Company Ltd, an enduring agreement has been reached encompassing all the different aspects of both companies' commercial relationship".

"Odeon is pleased to announce that it will now be showing Alice In Wonderland beginning March 5 in its cinemas in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Portugal and Austria."

Vue Entertainment, one of Britain's largest cinema circuits, released a statement saying that it would be showing Alice in its 69 cinemas in Britain and Ireland.

In a statement Tuesday, Vue said it had reached "an important and far reaching agreement" with Disney that "will deliver more choice for cinema goers while also providing more flexibility for the studio."

"We are delighted we have reached an agreement with our partners at Disney,'" said Tim Richards, chief executive of Vue. "This is a win-win for everyone in the entertainment business and in particular for our customers by offering greater film choice.'"

See the "Alice" World Premiere LIVE

If you can't make it to London on Thursday, February 25th, Disney has announced that you will be able to see the red carpet events at the world premiere of Alice in Wonderland via live webcast. Click this Facebook link to become a fan and RSVP for the event.

The Royal World Premiere of the film will take place at 9:30 am PST / 5:30 pm GMT on Thursday, February 25th and be streaming live via a Ustream webcast.

The White Queen = Cooking Star Nigella Lawson?

Tim Burton explained some of his real-world inspiration for the White Queen character in Alice in Wonderland:

There's this very beautiful cooking show host in England named Nigella Lawson and I quietly had her as my image for this character," Burton said, referring to the comely author and television personality sometimes referred to as the "queen of food porn."

Burton said that as lovely as Lawson is, her cooking routine has an eerie edge to it at times. "She's really beautiful and she does all this cooking, but then there's this glint in her eye and when you see it you go, 'Oh, whoa, she's like really ... nuts.' I mean in a good way. Well, maybe. I don't know."


British cuisine star Nigella Lawson.

The White Queen is played by Anne Hathaway in Burton's film.

Burton also discussed the tense relationship between the Red Queen and the White Queen.

"With a lot of people I've known, when it comes to sisters, there's this perception that there's the nice one and the bad one," Burton said. "But then, that nice one, there's also undercurrents there and things going back and forth between the two. She can stay up sharpening knives all night, but she's still the nice one."

The director said that Linda Woolverton's adaptation of Lewis Carroll's original stories bent the perception of good and evil beyond cliched archetypes.

"The interesting thing I think was to have them connected, and neither is quite what you expect," Burton said. "What Linda did with that was great. It helps with the thing that really sets Alice apart from so many other types of kids literature, which is the fact that everybody is a little bit off. Even if somebody is good, there's something wrong with them. Everyone is a bit twisted somehow. The White Queen is no exception."

Burton on "Jonathan Ross" This Friday

A heads-up for Tim Burton fans in the UK: the filmmaker will be on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on BBC1 at 10:35 pm.

Cineworld Will Be Showing 3D "Alice" in UK

In case you're in the UK and concerned if you'll be able to see Alice in Wonderland, Cineworld Cinemas has just announced that they will be showing the film in 3D on over 150 screens.

After much speculation around whether or not major cinema exhibitors in the UK would play the film, Cineworld has reached an agreement with the Walt Disney Company UK.

Cineworld Chief Executive Steve Wiener comments “we are extremely pleased to have reached a satisfactory compromise on this matter. As leaders in 3D we did not want the public to miss out on such a visual spectacle. As the success of Avatar has shown there is currently a huge appetite for the 3D experience”.

You can book your tickets to see Wonderland by clicking here.

"Alice" Banned from Certain European Cinemas?

Following the announcement that Walt Disney Picture's wants to shorten the theatrical run of Alice in Wonderland in favor of an earlier home entertainment release, several cinema chains in Europe are threatening to boycott showing the film at all. This is particularly so in the UK and the Netherlands. Some Italian theater chains are also considering similar action.

Walt Disney Pictures is one of several studios that are experimenting with shorter theatrical runs and earlier home entertainment releases of upcoming films, in response to declining DVD sales. Disney said it intended to release the Alice DVD and Blu-ray about three months after the movie appears in theaters, compared with the typical four- to six-month window.

But theater owners, especially in Europe, fear that the decision may dissuade consumers from going to cinemas.

No U.S. theater chains have threatened a boycott yet, although same may pull Alice from screens as soon as the movie is available in various home entertainment formats.

"I'm getting e-mails from my colleagues all across Europe and everyone says ... this is one step too far," said Ad Weststrate, president of the International Union of Cinemas in Europe. "The guys are really fanatic now."

Some European exhibitionists have also complained that Disney had not consulted with them until very recently (unlike their American counterparts).

"It was represented like 'take it or leave,' " said one high-level European exhibition executive who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussions. "It was done brutally."

Vue Entertainment Ltd. and Odeon Cinemas, two of the U.K.'s three major cinema chains, currently don't plan to show the film in their theaters, two people familiar with the matter said, although talks remain ongoing.

Britain is the second-largest international market for American movies after Japan, but its potential for Alice is even larger, given that the movie, which cost about $150 million to produce, given that it is based on a British series of books and featuring a largely British cast and crew.

"Anything that would prevent maximizing Alice for the U.K. would be horrible," said Joe Roth, a producer of the film. "This would be one of the biggest pictures of the year in the U.K. But I honestly think this will be worked out."

Despite the dispute, Odeon will still host the "Royal World Premiere" of Alice at its flagship theater in London's Leicester Square next Thursday.

"Alice" Theatrical Run Shortened

Disney CEO Bob Iger has decided to cut the theatrical run of Alice in Wonderland by a few weeks, the Hollywood Reporter states.

Normally, movies remain in cinemas for a 16-week run. But the theatrical run for Alice will be truncated to just under 13 weeks.

This experiment might become a growing trend for movies in general. Shortening the theatrical run of films might make home entertainment methods of viewing movies (Video On Demand, DVD, Blu-ray) more successful.

Another benefit would be freeing up the 3D and IMAX movie screens. Alice will be bumping Avatar off the map widely, and the 3D release of Warner Bros' Clash of the Titans (release date April 2nd) will be following Alice.

The abbreviated theatrical run will likely take effect in both the UK and the United States.

Johnny Depp Film Season at the BFI

British Burton fans may want to check out the upcoming Johnny Depp film season at the British Film Institute in London. It includes a chance to see both Sweeney Todd and Corpse Bride on the big screen. More information below:

This February the BFI Southbank London presents a season of Johnny Depp films which includes some of Burton's most personal work in one of Hollywood's most successful collaborations. These screen alongside some of Depp's other work with some of the greatest contemporary directors, including Terry Gilliam, Jim Jarmusch and Roman Polanski.

"Johnny Depp's ascent to the top of the Hollywood A-list has been marked by a refusal to compromise, and by doing things his own way. We look at the work of an actor who's never happier than when he's messing with his appearance."

Feb. 28: "Alice" at Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

Want to see Alice in Wonderland before March 5th? Those in Ireland can see the film in 3D on February 28th, as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. The film will be shown at the Savoy at 17 Upper O'Connell Street Dublin 1.

Click here to book tickets for this special JDIFF presentation!

"Alice in Wonderland" US and UK Premieres Announced

From Johnny Depp News:

London (UK) Premiere Wednesday 24th or Thursday 25th February (TBC) Location: Odeon Leicester Square, London (TBC) Crowds Arrival: 12:00 noon Onwards Red Carpet Arrivals: 5:30pm Guests: Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Matt Lucas, Timothy Spall, Barbara Windsor, Paul Whitehouse and many many More.

Los Angeles (USA) Premiere February (TBC) Location: Pacific's El Capitan, 6838 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood Crowds Arrival: 2:00pm Red Carpet Arrivals: 5:30pm to 6:30pm Guests: Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter and many many More.

UK "Alice" Trailer Contains More New Footage!

Check out the UK cut of the latest Alice in Wonderland trailer -- it contains some different footage from the new one released in the US:

Get Your Copy of "The Art of Tim Burton"!

You can now pre-order your very own copy of the lavish, comprehensive book, The Art of Tim Burton.



For those of you who may be wondering about the differences between the Standard and Deluxe editions of the books, here are the details:

The Standard edition is $69.99. The Deluxe edition is $299.99, because it includes a hand signed inside cover, a numbered and individually signed lithograph - ready for framing, not folded, and a cloth slipcase. Other than that, the Standard and Deluxe editions are identical: both contain over 1000 illustrations and 430 pages plus foldouts, and commentaries from numerous friends and collaborators of Tim Burton. Each versions usually ship in 2 to 4 weeks.



If you happen to be in New York City, you can pick up your own copy in person at the Museum of Modern Art's book store. Otherwise, you can pre-order your copy from Steeles Publishing if you're in the United States, or from Forbidden Planet if you're in the UK or Europe.

Here are some more preview images from The Art of Tim Burton:



“Alien Fighting Men,” 1981-1983

Pen and ink, colored pencil



“The Red Queen,” 2008

Pen and ink, colored pencil



“Tim With Chinese Security,” 2006

Pen and ink, watercolor

Burton created this illustration while searching for shooting locations in China for Ripley's Believe It or Not. Burton is no longer attached to the project.



“Well Endowed,” 1980-1990

Water color, pencil



“Battle Spread,” 1980-1989

Pen and ink, watercolor


A mere fragment of the expansive fold-out spread featured in the book.

Helena Bonham Carter says: "Tim's 5-year-old son [Billy Ray Burton] and he both love to draw monsters. Sometimes it's difficult to tell who drew what. And I mean that as a compliment to both."

Producer Abbate Tells Few "Frankenweenie" Secrets

Animation veteran Allison Abbate gave a few bits of information on the stop-motion adaptation of Frankenweenie, which she is producing.

Abbate told HitFix.com that production will commence in early 2010, likely in the spring. The production time frame is "two years", said the producer, and will hopefully be released around or before Halloween 2011.

Previous reports stated that the film would be shot in stereoscopic 3D. But Abbate now says that that idea is actually still up in the air. Executive producer and Disney veteran Don Hahn and others have stated that the film will also be shot in black and white, but Abbate was more hesitant. "Maybe," she said. "That's one of the ideas that is being put up. I think it would be really cool." It might be a hard sell for a Disney animated film. But neither the 3D nor black and white possibilities have been entirely ruled out yet.


A still from the live-action short film Frankenweenie from 1984.

Abbate remained secretive, noting that Tim Burton is working on several films. "He's got to get through 'Alice [in Wonderland' first]," she said, and Burton will also be directing a cinematic version of Dark Shadows.

But the producer did confirm that the film will be entirely stop-motion animated. (Although a few CG or traditional cel animated elements as seen in Corpse Bride are possible, we're guessing.)

Abbate is also a producer on the stop-motion The Fantastic Mr. Fox, directed by Wes Anderson and based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name, as well as Brad Bird's The Iron Giant and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride in the past. She was also an artistic coordinator on The Nightmare Before Christmas, her first assignment on a Tim Burton film.

Frankenweenie will be shot at Three Mills Studio in London, CinemaBlend.com reports, just like The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Anderson's stop-motion film was also made on a similar two-year time frame.

It's Alive! "Frankenweenie" Rises from the Dead!

Tim Burton's stop-motion animated, feature-length adaptation of his 1984 live-action short Frankenweenie is coming! And executive producer Don Hahn has provided some details at Disney's D23 Expo to SciFi Wire:

1. It will be in black and white. An animated movie in black and white? Was this not a hard sell? "It was and it wasn't," Hahn said. "I think now, with Tim working at the top of his craft, the top of his game, on movies like Alice in Wonderland, I think Dick Cook really felt like if you're going to take a risk on anybody, why can't it be Tim Burton? A Tim Burton movie in black and white based on Frankenstein, how cool is that? Dick was very supportive of it." [Dick Cook was the chairman of the Walt Disney Co. until a few days ago. It is unclear whether his abrupt departure from the company will affect the film.]


Don Hahn has been in the animation industry for a while.


2. The new script will include more Frankenstein and more of the dog. And the screenplay is finished, Hahn confirmed at the press conference. "It's Frankenstein mixed with a boy-and-his-dog story, very much like the original one," Hahn said in an exclusive interview after the conference. "What's great is Tim grew up in Southern California, in Burbank, and the movie itself kind of takes that California suburban look at a monster movie story. I think that's what we're trying to do."


3. The Frankenstein family tree is growing. Bigger movie means more characters. "There are a lot of great new characters in it, really great new characters," Hahn said in the exclusive interview. But who will be among the cast? "It's the ensemble. It's the Tim Burton ensemble." Many of the actors from Burton's 1984 short film are still alive, such as Shelley Duvall, but which collaborators of Burton's may be on board? "The neat thing about Tim is he can pretty much call up anybody he needs and they'll be happy to work with him," Hahn said.




4. Now Tim Burton can do what he wants. Disney wasn't very happy with the original Frankenweenie, deeming it too scary for children. But now, with Burton's bankability, Disney is letting the creative filmmaker unleashed (relatively speaking). "Unlike Tim's recent stop-motion movies, he's designing the characters himself," Hahn said in this exclusive interview. "So you really get kind of the hand of the artist in it and get to see Tim's work itself. It's Tim Burton at his best. I think that's why he leapt at it, because when he started out making movies, it was his first choice for a live-action movie. I think he felt like, 'Gee, I wish I could've made a feature back then.' So now to come back and revisit the material is pretty fun for him, I think." Indeed, Burton has been wanting to make a feature version of Frankenweenie for 25 years -- a quarter of a century.


5. It has begun. And it's set for a 2011 release. "I'm not sure it's a 90-minute film," Hahn said. Burton and his team have already built maquettes. "We're underway on it, and I think the most important thing is it has to be a good movie," Hahn said. "So if it's not ready for 2011, then we'll let it drift into the next year, but we're up and running already." Like Corpse Bride before it, Frankenweenie is entering production in London. "The primary reason to go there is Tim lives there, and there's a great group of talent over there also that is really into stop-motion animation," Hahn said. (So a 2012 release date is not unrealistic.)


More exciting news to come in the future! Stay tuned!

Shane Acker Talks "9"

The animated science-fiction epic 9 is hitting theaters on Wednesday. (I saw it a few days ago at a special pre-release screening, and I'd definitely recommend it.) In recognition of the film's release, director Shane Acker talks about his first feature, his influences, and what his next projects might be with Animation World Network's Bill Desowitz:

A new era in animated storytelling begins with the release of 9 on 9/9/09 (from Focus Features). Shane Acker, the celebrated UCLA alum, whose imaginative 9 short was nominated for an Oscar, has been hard at work for the last four years or so making his post-apocalyptic CG adventure into a feature. How 9 got set up is fascinating. It was first shepherded by producer Jim Lemley (Wanted), who got the short to super agent Mike Simpson, who then approached Tim Burton, who helped set it up at Focus. Then Lemley approached his directing partner, Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Night Watch), who was helpful with, among other things, recutting. Acker tells us in this exclusive interview about his experience making his feature debut with Starz Animation Toronto, as well as his recent artist in resident gig at The Gnomon School and two upcoming features he's trying to set up.


Elijah Wood (left) and Shane Acker

Bill Desowitz: How did you first approach making 9 into a feature?

Shane Acker: When I made the short, I really didn't have a longer form script or idea, but I did have a lot of ideas about the world and the backstory to help me design the short and the characters. We just kind of started there, relooking at all those ideas I had behind the short and how those characters came to be and what happened to the humans. And then started cracking the door open a little wider and tried to piece together a story from that. But this was my way of diving back into another four years of a project that had already taken me four-and-a-half, with the possibility of who these other characters are, who the other numbers are. They are just suggested in the short.

BD: So you got to unlock a lot of doors.

SA: Yes, exactly. And that's a lot of fun, both in designing the characters but then trying to figure out who they are, and their personalities and who their maker was: a Geppetto/Oppenheimer-like character connected to the downfall of humanity and how they represent a new beginning and vessels for the human spirit to carry on in this world. And that they're all facets of that one individual personality/identity. They're all inclined in different ways, so they all have different strengths and weaknesses. And through this coming together, they form the whole -- they put together the individual once again.

BD: And where did you set up your animation initially?

SA: You must know the story: It was Attitude Studio, which had a studio in Paris, but we set up in Luxembourg. And so we worked on the film for about seven months over there in Luxembourg before it became really apparent to us that we were never going to get the movie done with that studio. I mean, they have a lot of talented and dedicated artists, but the pipeline was just not set up [for our needs]. They were adapting a motion capture pipeline into a character pipeline; we sort of discovered through the process that we just didn't have the tools and wouldn't be able to get the tools together in time…

BD: So how did you end up at Starz?

SA: Yeah, so the thing was set up as a negative pick up, and when we had to go to the studio and tell them that we wouldn't be able to guarantee that we could get this movie done on time, then the bond company came in and did a whole audit. And, as part of that audit, they brought in Jinko Gotoh, who is an animation producer. She worked on Finding Nemo and a bunch of Disney projects, so she became a champion for the project. She wanted to find a way to keep it going, even though it meant setting it somewhere else and spending more money. So I really credit her for keeping the project alive and finding a new home for it at Starz Toronto, which turned out to be a wonderful experience with a really great team. And really smart artists who understood the vision and were really collaborative in finding ways to make it work and get the most bang for the buck on screen for a really modest budget. They come from experience where they're working with big studios, but they're up in Canada and finding ways to cut corners and tweaking and refining their pipeline all down the line.

BD: And obviously it stepped them up and prepared them to handle bigger features.

SA: And we took a creative team there and just kind of vetted and bonded with the artists… and there's something about the material and the world that inspired the artists. They got to flex [new] muscles and that helped push the quality of the film.


BD: Talk about developing the look of the characters and the world -- the "Stitchpunk" that borrows from stop-motion.

SA: When I was doing the short, what I felt was lacking in a lot of the CG projects out there were a real texture and grit, as well as a cinematic approach to the storytelling. And I was finding that in stop-motion films, whether it was the Brothers Quay or Jan Svanmajer. I drew a lot of inspiration from them. There's a kind of believability because they had to mechanically work the puppets and armatures that they created for their stop-motion characters. So there was a truth through materials and a grit and grime and texture on the world.

BD: Very tactile.

SA: Yes, very tactile, that drew you in and you believed it.

BD: And how did you make this work in CG?

SA: When I was first doing the short, I was thinking that I would do it as a stop-motion film, but found that it was very limiting in what you could do with the camera to tell the story visually, So I decided to take this sensibility, this interest, this design idea and bring it into the CG world where I can move the camera any way that I want. But at the same time, adhering to the cinematic language of how you move a camera, which, I think, is what Pixar has done.

BD: And the environments, which have a very Eastern European painterly influence?

SA: We wanted it to work on lots of different levels. So when you get close to the characters, there will always be more detail revealed to you. We knew that we would be spending a lot of time with our characters and so we put a lot of detail and texture into them, which make them believable. And then on the environments, we were able to take other liberties with them, based upon the camera and things like that. We did a lot of painterly things with that. But somehow it works because when you're close, the characters feel believable and tactile, and then when you're in the vista, it feels like they're moving through these paintings so it feels more romantic, lyrical, like a fable. It is this alternate reality world, this ruined "Stitchpunk" world, and it becomes a dark, urban, post-apocalyptic fairy tale. Plus you'll get there so much quicker by doing a painting then by putting all the details in for one rendering.

BD: And what was it like having Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov shepherding your movie?

SA: Tim Burton coming on the project when he did and validating it and putting his name out there and supporting the vision that we had, as well as finding the writer [Pamela Pettler] and getting the studio, too, to buy it. And then as we went, just having that support team there, where whenever we got a big mouth done or we got a new cut of the film, we would present it to them and they had this critical distance from the film, because I had been in the trenches for so long and could see it with fresh eyes and talk about the larger ideas or the big picture notes. This allowed me to step back and see it through their eyes and strategize and go back into the trenches and to know how to push from the inside out.

And in the end, they were both making films, but then Timur finished Wanted, so I got to spend more time with him, which was an amazing experience.

BD: What was he like?

SA: He's like this unedited stream of crazy and inventive ideas, so he's like this endless well, where, if you have a problem, and he'll constantly come up with ideas. Some work, some don't. But while some may seem crazy, when you step back, you realize there's something to it. And so it was fun having that crazy spirit. And then doing recuts with him, seeing how even in editing if you massage it a certain way, you can change the perception of the characters, you can make them stronger, you can make them more vulnerable as well as upping the ante and the excitement of the film.

BD: So, let's switch gears and talk about your becoming an artist in residence at Gnomon.

SA: Yeah, well Alex Alvarez and I have had a loose connection for a while and he approached me before I started 9 about being an artist in residence at The Gnomon School and developing short films with the students there, which I thought was an amazing opportunity. And then when 9 was wrapping up, I called Alex and said, "Hey, do you still have that position over there?" Because there's something very liberating and you always want to keep developing stuff and broadening your horizons as an artist. These feature films take years and years and they also take a lot of time to set up, so the opportunity to go and make a little short where the stakes aren't as high and you can take more risks and explore and push yourself as an artist was really appealing to me. So when he said that the position was still open, I leapt at the opportunity. You know, you always have these stories rolling around in your head and spending four years on 9, I certainly have a backlog of ideas for shorts. And I had one ready-made that I pitched, which fits the aesthetic of the school, so it felt like it was right up their alley.


A storyboard of 3 and 4 drawn by Acker himself.

BD: What can you tell me about it?

SA: Well, it's really short: I think it's going to be three or three-and-a-half minutes. And, again, it's returning to my roots as a non-verbal storyteller. It's real character-based. Gnomon is sort of known for their visual design and effects work but not so much for character animation, so it's bringing something new into the school. But it's this tale that takes place above the planes of hell in like this Dante's Inferno world. There are these two demons that are biding their time and they're caught in a struggle of miscommunication; they're both missing vital pieces of themselves, important for communication, but they each contain the piece in their possession that will complete the other. But somehow, because they can't communicate, it just turns into this terrible battle that ultimately leads to their fate, and you get the sense that this is something repeats endlessly, and that's their place in hell. It's a pretty neat little story with some interesting character designs, so I'm excited about working on it.

BD: And you get to collaborate with the students.

SA: Yeah, which is great, because I spent time as a teacher all through my education. At UCLA, I was a teaching assistant and I really love working with artists in general, especially young artists, and see what they bring to the table and how excited they are to learn and be a part of it. And, again, looking for this unfettered imagination that is not tarnished at all by production experience and all these kinds of things that can bog you down after a while and limit your vision.

BD: So, when do you start?

SA: It's happening now: I've storyboarded it and we've been cutting it and I think the end of September we'll start producing it.



BD: And what about any potential features in the works?

SA: There are two projects: a live-action that hasn't been announced that we're trying to get a development deal on, kind of a fantasy world, based on a young-adult novel series out of the U.K., which will be a lot of fun because it has this very interesting core of characters. And then there's an animated film that we're pitching to the studios right now that's based on a graphic novel -- a kind of Secret of NIMH meets Dark Crystal meets Lord of the Rings. It's all told deep in the unforeseen forest and it's a dark, dramatic, epic adventure film.

Bill Desowitz is senior editor of AWN and VFXWorld.

-----------------

IMDb.com lists the release dates of 9 per country:

France 19 August 2009
Canada 9 September 2009
Cyprus 9 September 2009
Czech Republic 9 September 2009
Estonia 9 September 2009
Greece 9 September 2009
Netherlands 9 September 2009
Russia 9 September 2009
Singapore 9 September 2009
South Korea 9 September 2009
USA 9 September 2009
Ukraine 10 September 2009
Belgium 16 September 2009
Brazil 18 September 2009
Poland 18 September 2009
Finland 27 September 2009 (Helsinki International Film Festival)
Iceland 9 October 2009
Portugal 29 October 2009
UK 30 October 2009
Argentina 5 November 2009
Spain 1 January 2010
Taiwan 19 March 2010
Australia 21 September 2010

UK "Alice" Trailer

The Alice in Wonderland teaser trailer from the UK is similar to the Spanish language version: nearly identical to the American one, but with a slightly different ending:

"Alice in Wonderland" UK Release Date

A couple of images from Empire Magazine, showing Mia Wasikowska as Alice and another little glimpse of Wonderland. The images reveal that Alice in Wonderland will be released in the UK on April 2nd, 2010.

Bonham Carter Wins Award, Burton Discusses "Alice"

The 2009 Jameson Empire Awards show was hosted this past Sunday in London's Grosvenor House. Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter attended.

Their film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was nominated for five awards: Best Horror, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Soundtrack. The musical-thriller didn't take most of its potential awards home (including Johnny Depp's nomination for Best Actor), except for Helena Bonham Carter, who was honored for her portrayal as Mrs. Lovett.


Here is Bonham Carter's acceptance speech (watch the video of her speech in this link):

"Thanks so much. This is a real compliment, I'm very chuffed. I did work actually incredibly hard for that role, but I loved every bit of it, and it was so many dreams come true. Because I always wanted to be in a musical, to sing, to be in something written by Steven Sondheim - he's a genius - and I always wanted a baby girl. I actually got all that, thanks to Tim Burton. And I know he always wanted to be Best Actress, so this is as much his as mine. Thank you!"



At the show, the actress mentioned how she would love to do more musicals in the future: "I'd love to do it but no-one's asked, I would be really up for it though."

She also talked about the singing abilities of her co-star, Johnny Depp, versus her own skills: "To be absolutely honest, people are born to sing, I wasn't born to sing but I could just do it and I only did it after about six months of training. If I'd known I was going to play that part I should have started training years ago, it's a muscle that needs to be exercised."

She added: "I would love to do more, given the chance, and I loved every second of doing it."

And she continued to say how thankful she has been to be a part of Tim Burton's world. "I feel really lucky to still feature in Tim's imagination. I know I've borne his illegitimate children and we're very happily together but it's really fantastic that I still seem to occur in his imagination," she said.

Helena Bonham Carter will be playing the role of the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland.

Michael Sheen and Helena Bonham Carter

While on the subject, Burton talked a bit about Alice in Wonderland:

"Way down the rabbit hole" was Burton's status report. "There's a long way to go."

Empire asked Burton how much CGI would be involved in the film: "I'm not quite sure yet - doing a big budget movie is an organic process and gives the opportunity to experiment. It’s something that was presented to me and I’d never seen really a movie version of [the story] that I like, so I thought I’d just give it a shot."



The director also gave his feelings about working with 3D: "I like the 3-D aspect of it, I think it fits the material very well, and it doesn’t give me a headache like it used to."

"I think it’s good for anything. There are other uses than having spears stuck into your face - I think there are more visceral, emotional uses, especially if you use lots of textures."


Michael Sheen, who will be in Alice in Wonderland, also attended the awards show. The British actor presented Helena Bonham Carter her award.



You can see more photos from the celebration in this link:

Michael Sheen with Gerard Butler


Tim Burton with fellow director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93)



Photo credits: Gareth Gay, Jeff Spicer / Alpha

Burton and Bonham Carter in Vogue Photoshoot

In case you didn't see them, here are pictures from the crazy and surreal Vogue UK photoshoot, "Tales of the Unexpected," by Tim Walker. These photos featuring Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter were published in the December 2008 issue of Vogue UK. There looks to be some Charlie and the Chocolate Factory influence in the perplexing and charming mix of photographs.

To see larger versions of the pictures, click on the thumbnails below. Pictures from helena-world.com and stylefrizz.com.

Zanuck Talks "Alice," "Dark Shadows"

Producer Richard D. Zanuck has recently talked about Tim Burton's current film, Alice in Wonderland, as well as a possible future project for the director: a big-screen adaptation of the TV series Dark Shadows.

In one interview, Zanuck discussed Burton's decision to shoot Alice in 2D and eventually convert it to 3D in post-production. Director James Cameron, who is also involved with the new 3D movement in cinema, criticized this decision, saying "It doesn't make sense to shoot in 2-D and convert to 3D."


Zanuck: I'm making a very interesting film now, called Alice in Wonderland with Tim Burton. And we're shooting it in Culver City, and we're almost through with our part of it, which is shooting the live actors but they'll be animated. It's the first picture that will combine motion capture, with live actors and animation, all in the same frame. It'll be quite amazing.

What can you say about Tim Burton's vision for that?

Zanuck: It's everything you could imagine. You put Tim Burton in a world where his vision can run wild and you'll get the result that we're getting. I mean, when she goes into the rabbit hole. It's a dream actually. Her dream. And if it's anything that comes from her mind, and we're very faithful to the Lewis Carrol book. But it's Tim Burton being able to really crank up his wild imagination. In kind of a dark way too, as the original material was dark and scary.

James Cameron said that he didn't understand why you would shoot it in 2-D and convert to 3-D. Why not shoot it in 3-D?

Zanuck: The 3-D cameras are very clumsy quite frankly, compared to 2-D cameras. And it would have cost a lot more, we would have had more crew involved. I didn't see what Cameron said but, I was convinced, and so is Tim, seeing test after test of pictures that have been released in 3-D, shot in 2-D and you can't tell the difference. I would defy Jim Cameron to see the tests I saw and point out which was 2-D and which was 3-D.


In a second article, Zanuck talked about an upcoming project of his: Dark Shadows, which may be another Tim Burton-Johnny Depp collaboration.

In a brief video interview (click this link to view it), Zanuck states that filming may begin as soon as next summer in London. He also discusses Depp's obsession with the soap opera when he was a schoolboy.

"Alice in Wonderland" Set Photos!

Tim Burton and Mia Wasikowska on the set of Alice in Wonderland

INF Daily has posted some excellent set photos of the shoot in Cornwall, England.

Mia Wasikowska (playing Alice) and Tim Burton are prominent. Helena Bonham Carter is also on the set with baby Nell. Nell looks like she's in period costume, too... might she make a cameo appearance as an extra like first-born Billy Ray in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Click on the following images for larger versions!