Burton and Depp on "Jonathan Ross"

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp were both on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on February 26th, 2010:

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4:



Part 5:

Interview with Mia Wasikowska

Alice in Wonderland will be released in cinemas in less than a month, so there will be plenty more to hear about the film until then. For now, the Los Angeles Times is doing extensive coverage on the film. Here's the LA Times' Geoff Boucher's interview with the star of the movie, 20 year old Mia Wasikowska.

BEWARE OF POTENTIAL SPOILERS!!:


GB: The film is called "Alice in Wonderland," but really this is neither a pure adaptation of Lewis Carroll's writings nor a remake of previous films. This is a whole new story, correct?

MW: It's a completely different and new story, but it has a lot of the same characters in it. It has the same feel of the original stories, but it's really fun to explore a story that goes further and imagines what all these characters would be like several years down the tracks. Alice doesn't have a recollection of her first visit there. She's gone back and is discovering this world and finding herself again in this place that she doesn't even remember.

GB: There are very few directors who have a style and vision that is instantly recognizable -- perhaps Woody Allen and Quentin Tarantino are on that list among contemporary filmmakers -- but there's no question that Tim Burton is at the very top of that list. If you walk into a theater where a Burton movie is playing, you know it right away. That must make him an intriguing figure for actors.

MW: Absolutely. It is so cool to be part of his vision, to be able to start a project and see it all the way through to the end. It's almost like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was such a fan of his films growing up, movies like "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood." He has such a distinct style and a distinct sense of humor. And working with him it's been such an amazing thing to see something first on the page and then watch it become real as he brings it to life. He has such a cool energy too.

GB: This movie took you into the world of green-screen moviemaking. I visited the set and it was a little disorientating just walking around in there; it messes up your depth of perception. Was it a struggle for you in any way?

MW: It is really strange. But Wonderland itself is bizarre and weird and comical and confusing, so it's appropriate that, as you say, we were in this green-screen environment where it doesn't always make sense to you. Things were just really odd and weird, and I suppose that was suitable to what we were working on. It put you in the right frame of mind. And it made you rely on your imagination more.



GB: Tim's background is an artist and, as you say, he is so visual in his storytelling -- when he's working with the actors, does that help him or handicap him in communicating what he wants from the performances? Sometimes people with intense visual talents aren't the best communicators.

MW: Right from the beginning we had a very similar view as to how Alice should be played, so we were on a similar page right from the beginning, which was very helpful. He's very precise and clear and patient, and that was exactly what I needed as far as direction in this kind of film because it was so complicated [in the filming process]. One of the most interesting things about Tim is that he does communicate visually, but he is also very precise and uses a language that people can identify with. In that way he is a real genius.

GB: You're at the start of your career, but in this film you're performing with an elite and experienced cast with Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, etc. Coming in, was that something that allowed you to relax a bit or did it have the opposite effect?



MW: They were all so wonderful and made me feel really welcome. It would seem intimidating to work with such big names, but then each, individually, were such lovely people that it only made me feel comfortable. It was wonderful.

GB: What was your sense of Johnny Depp, specifically?

MW: He is such a cool guy. He has the humanity to keep this sense of self. He's very kind and generous and so smart. To be able to watch Johnny -- just like with Tim -- as he takes something from the page to reality and how hard he works and what he brought to it and how much he brought to it, it's was amazing. It is inspiring too that he does things in a purely joyous way and has fun with it all, because so often there are people who seem disgruntled. To keep that love of what you do is so important. And watching him and Tim work together is fun. They have a very deep rapport. Watching them, it's like they speak their very own language.

GB: Coming into this project, I'm sure you made a lot of decisions about what you wanted to do with the character and maybe a few about what you didn't want to do with the character. What were some of the things you didn't want to do with your Alice?

MW: That's an interesting question. I suppose I would say I didn't want to bring in a lot of the baggage that is associated with "Alice in Wonderland" and just find the Alice that a lot of girls would identify with. I want to make her identifiable. She's at a crossroads in her life. So many people have an idea of how Alice should be played and there are these images in the public mind about her, but I wanted to keep to my own ideas how she would be and be true to that in the performance. The most important thing was to find the girl beneath this iconic figure.

Colleen Atwood on Burton, "Alice": "It's Going to Be Amazing"

Renowned award-winning costume designer and frequent Burton collaborator Colleen Atwood sat down for an interview with MovieLine.com, and discussed how she met Tim Burton, how new technology has affected her method of designing costumes for Alice in Wonderland, what we can expect from Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland, and much more:

You’ve worked with Johnny Depp many times now.

I have … Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow … Let’s see … Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland …

It must be a treat to design for an actor who can disappear so seamlessly inside his characters.

He really is a chameleon, and he takes on the character in the clothes. They don’t ever look like costumes on him; they look real, and that really helps my job.

Your partnership with Tim Burton — how did the two of you first come together?

I was recommended to him on Edward Scissorhands by a production designer — Bo Welch — who I’d work with prior to that. So I met Tim through him, and we clicked in our own way, and we’ve managed to have a long run together and still enjoy working together. I just went to Tim’s show at MoMA last night, and it was fantastic. Really amazing.

Do you conceive of the costumes together through sketches? I know he frequently begins on paper.

There’s something that he captures that is kind of the soul of the character on paper, and there’s often costume elements, but we’re not married to that at all. I mean, for sure on Edward Scissorhands, because there was so much involved with that, but with the Mad Hatter, with Sweeney, with those costumes, he really doesn’t give me a drawing and say, “This is what I want.” I think it’s because he knows the other people working with him are artists, so he gets very excited and enthusiastic when we show him what we have. He has a wonderful eye himself, and so he’ll a little magical touch to something.

How did the new 3-D technology he used in Alice in Wonderland affect your designs?

I did a lot of the computer animated costumes — I knew what the animated world was going to be, and I knew a bit about 3-D anyway, and so I sort of tried to make stuff that you could play with in 3-D. Stuff that pops in and out. We ended up physically making a lot of the other stuff and it would later end up being animated. It really helped Tim to see things as physical costumes first, and it gave the animators a lot of help as far as depth and texture and things like that. I think what we’re going to see now is the mixture of live and animated people and costumes in an animated world. It’s going to be a really amazing, fun thing for the audience.


I know he wanted to depart with the traditional narrative. How tied were you to the original illustrations, and what were you reference points for designing a new Alice in Wonderland?

It was really freeing, because there’s Lewis Caroll’s own drawings, of which there aren’t very many and they’re quite simple. As Alice went through various eras, there’s classic references for them. Because this is so different from what people are going to expect — Alice isn’t a ten-year-old girl, she’s a young woman — there’s a nod to the classical need for that. But once she goes into Wonderland, we took it to another place. The Hatter has a hat and the recognizable elements, but we explored the world of hat makers in London in the period. So we pulled from that for inspiration more than the previous illustrations, and Johnny used that for his character. They called hatters “mad hatters” because they used these toxic glues and dyes all the time, and they were actually quite mad, a lot of them. So it was quite cool to read about that business in that time, and that they were actually quite in demand and made a quite decent living at that period.



Now when you do something historically accurate and less fanciful than something like Alice in Wonderland, such as Public Enemies, how much research goes into it before you even sketch your first drawing?

In a story like Public Enemies, it’s about people who existed, so you go to that trough, using what few images of them existed. Actually when I do period work, I really like to read about the period as much as I like to look at pictures, because sometimes the written word is much better at conveying what their lives were really like and how much they had, and where their clothes came from. Because a lot of time, people dressed in their Sunday best to pose for a picture. They didn’t take snapshots until much later — there certainly wasn’t much of that going on in the 1930s.

For most of these guys, it was mugshots and prison entrance and exit clothes, but I had a lot of people do online research, and Michael Mann of course had been on the project for a long time and had very deep research and was quite specific. The production designer usually starts a show before I do and they usually have a depth of research. So it’s a combination of all that.


You have some TV credits as well, such as The Tick. Did you design The Tick’s costume?

Yeah. The pilot.


Is it true The Tick’s moving antennae cost $1 million to produce?

Not the ones I did. Maybe later when they did the series they spent more money, but I did the pilot. I remember the amount that costume cost, as a matter of fact, and the budget for that kind of TV pilot is usually much higher. I didn’t have the kind of R&D you get when they decide to really go for it.


What was the most expensive costume you’ve ever made?

I’d say probably the most expensive costumes I’ve ever made were the costumes in The Planet of the Apes, because of the research and development that went into them and the amount of layers. I got the cost per costume down, but because it involved so many processes, with sculpting, and bodysuits, and cool suits, and oversuits, and helmets, and footwear, and handwear, that had to work for action and look like monkeys, that was probably the most expensive per-unit costume ever. The period stuff I spend a lot of time on, I have good textile artists. They’re not cheap, but they’re not out of control expensive either, because you have to make it work.




Speaking of making it work, do you watch Project Runway?

I have watched Project Runway, but I’m not a devout watcher of it. But I think it’s a great show, what I’ve seen of it, and I think Tim Gunn is a very positive, amazing guy.


I ask because they’ll often dismiss something on the show as looking “too costumey,” and I’m wondering if you take offense to that.

No, because I think the street world that it’s in is different. People like to stir up the fashion vs. costume world, and I think what they mean by “too costumey” is that it’s too much, or not real enough for everyday wear. You couldn’t say that about John Galliano’s shows, right? I mean they’re awesome and they’re total costume. It’s just a different thing. They do like to slag off costumes a bit — not on that show, but in the fashion world. I don’t know why they feel they have to compete.


Are you ever tempted to, or maybe you do, design your own clothes?

You know, it’s strange. Like, I’ve designed my Oscar dresses and my people have made them for me, but my own clothes per se that I wear? No — but I do a lot of fitting. Like I’ll buy something and completely recut it. I’m so used to thinking that my clothes are fairly neutral, it’s other people’s clothes I like to design.


Next up you’re working on yet another Johnny Depp film — The Rum Diary. What’s the look you’re going for there?

Well, it’s real. It’s a guy that goes to Puerto Rico in 1960, who’s kind of like an average guy. He shows up with very few clothes. There’s contrasts in the story, between the haves and the have-nots, the Union Carbides vs. the locals, so I pushed that side of the contrast a bit. But it’s very research-oriented and real clothes a lot.

Tim Burton Answers Your Questions

Remember when MTV News said they wanted the fans to submit questions for Tim Burton to answer in an exclusive video interview? Well, the video is finally online.

Burton talks about a huge variety of topics in the five clips below, including his "bromance" with Johnny Depp, his opinions on computer generated animation and stop-motion, and his upcoming movies Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows, among other topics.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

An except, while discussing his abstract dialogues with Johnny Depp:

"It's very nice to have someone that you can have a completely abstract conversation with and leave the room, feel like everything's fine, and then realize that if you pick it apart, you have absolutely no idea what either of you said."

Burton continued: "That's a sign of knowing somebody and connecting with somebody. I don't pretend to know [him]. If I don't know who I am — this sounds like a bad therapy session — but I don't pretend to know anybody else. That's what keeps it all cool."

"Alice" (and more) at Comic-Con

Some more bits of information on the recent Comic-Con events concerning Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland:

Screen Crave provided these little updates from Thursday's Disney 3D panel:

11:58: Tim Burton is about to come out for his first panel!

12:00: [Moderator Patton] Oswald asked [Burton] why he made Alice: his answer "because of the hardcore realistic setting" and then when asked about the clips he responded with "it looks like a freak show doesn’t it?"


Moderator Patton Oswalt and Tim Burton at the Disney 3D Panel

12:01: Tim jokes that they skinned Carrot Top for The Mad Hatter's wig. Depp enjoys having a part in the costumes (as always). As for the cat, it's creepy, which Tim says "confirms his hatred of cat" and says that Stephen Fry does the voice.

About to see clip! BRB!

12:05: Safest way to do PCP, watch his film Alice. It was a short clip. Only 30 seconds or so. Going to play it again...

12:07: Just got to see a clip twice that is "ONLY FOR COM-CON"… As they say in the clip; Alice – "This is impossible." Mad Hatter – "Only if you think it is." Absolutely beautiful images of [Tweedledee] and [Tweedledum]. The Mad Hatter is completely mad. The Cheshire cat is completely creepy.

12:10: Just got the first fan boy. Was so excited to ask a question and share his story he didn’t [let?] Burton talk.

12:11: "How did you work with actors to get them into character?" "Kept it as lively as possible and as fast as possible. green screen starts to freak you out after a while, you don't know who you are or where you are. You just try to keep moving and grooving."

12:12: His favorite films. Bits of all of them but Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood are special.

12:14: "What was the most difficult thing to do in this movie?"

12:15: WAIT!!!! Johnny Depp is here...


Johnny Depp and Tim Burton

12:17: Johnny Depp came out, got a HUGE standing ovation, said “Tim Burton!” everyone cheered and he left.


DreadCentral.com also reported that Tim Burton confirmed his next film after Alice in Wonderland: a feature adaptation of the Dan Curtis television drama Dark Shadows. Johnny Depp will star as Barnabas Collins. (No word on the feature-length animated version of Frankenweenie, that we know of...)



Johnny Depp makes a surprise appearance at Comic-Con

"9" Teaser Trailer Released

The teaser trailer for the upcoming computer-animated film 9 (based on the Academy Award-nominated short of the same name) has been released (view it in HD on Apple's website).

Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambatov (Nightwatch, Wanted) are producing the film, which will be directed by Shane Acker (who directed the original 2005 short).

The official plot synopsis included Elijah Wood as the character 9, Jennifer Connelly as the warrior 7, Martin Landau (who was in Burton's Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow) playing the role of the aged inventor 2, Crispin Glover playing the visionary artist 6 (who will be in Burton's Alice in Wonderland), Christopher Plummer as war veteran 1, and John C. Reilly as 5, the mechanic.

Danny Elfman will also be composing music for the film, according to the official synopsis on Apple's trailer website. Pamela Pettler (co-writer of Corpse Bride) co-wrote the screenplay.

The epic science-fiction action-adventure was originally intended to be released at the end of this year. Instead, Focus Features has pushed it back to September 9th, 2009 (9-9-09, get it?).

You can also watch a (slightly) lower quality version of the HD teaser trailer on YouTube:

"Ed Wood" at the Aero Tonight

Martin Landau
(Getty Images)

American Cinematheque will be showing Ed Wood at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, California tonight.

Martin Landau, who earned an Oscar for his performance as Bela Lugosi in the film, and screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski will be at the screening.


Wednesday, November 5, 7:30PM
$10
Aero Theater, 1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica
310-260-1528

Burton v. Marie: Legal Battle

Director Tim Burton has been ordered to stand trial in a lawsuit by his ex-girlfriend Lisa Marie, who claims she's owed millions of dollars.

Los Angeles Superior Court Justice Teresa Sanchez-Gordon ruled on the morning of Friday, July 18th, 2008, that a trial is the best means to determine whether Burton verbally agreed to bankroll Marie for life in return for her acting in his films (which include Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, and Planet of the Apes) and serving as his personal manager, as her suit contends, before allegedly duping her into a much smaller payout.

Burton had fought to have his lawsuit tossed. There has been no immediate comment from neither his publicist nor his lawyer.

While Marie turned up for the proceedings in California, Burton participated on the phone, since he is in London, busy working on his upcoming Alice in Wonderland.


The article by Josh Grossberg continues as follows:

In his motion seeking dismissal, attorney Joseph Mannis argued that any sort of oral agreement was not applicable in this case, because Lisa Marie signed off on a $5.5 million settlement. Per the terms of that deal, Mannis argued, Lisa Marie relinquished all claims to Burton's assets and promised not to file a palimony suit.

But the model and actress, who appeared in small roles in many of Burton's films and whose real name is Lisa Marie Smith, claims she only received $2.7 million and was victimized by a conspiracy. She claims that Burton worked with her own advisers to shortchange her.

Burton filed a countersuit last September seeking a court declaration affirming she was obligated to live up to the prior deal.

One of the plaintiff's lawyers lashed out at the director's camp for a bullying tactic in which they threatened to take futher legal action against her if she fought Burton's petition to dismiss the case.

"They said that if we had the temerity to file papers in opposition to their motion for some reason that they would file a malicious prosecution action not only against Lisa Marie but also against me," cocounsel Judd Burstein told E! News. "It's going to be very interesting what the jury thinks of that kind of hubris."

Burstein added his camp was "very pleased" by the judge's ruling.

"It's not unexpected to us. Nice to know that just because you're a big celebrity you can't get your way by cheating and bullying."

The attorney also said that a chance for an amicable agreement was past.

"We've had some [settlement] talks, but it's not going anywhere," Burstein said. "We want our day in court, and it will be a very bad day for Tim Burton."

That day is now scheduled for August 11th.

"Music from the Films of Tim Burton" -- Now Available

The new CD featuring music from the films of Tim Burton is now available on iTunes and in stores. The album features classic scores by Danny Elfman, the theme from Ed Wood by Howard Shore, and four instrumental tracks from songs from Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The music has been performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir.

Here is the track list:

1. Sweeney Todd - Main Titles
2. Sweeney Todd - No Place Like London
3. Sweeney Todd - A Little Priest
4. Sweeney Todd - Johanna
5. The Nightmare Before Christmas - Christmas Eve Montage
6. Corpse Bride - The Piano Duet/Victor's Piano Solo
7. Sleepy Hollow - End Titles
8. Batman - Theme/Flowers/Love Theme/The Joker's Poem/Up the Cathedral/Waltz to the Death/The Final Confrontation
9. Batman Returns - End Titles
10. Edward Scissorhands - Main Theme/Ice Dance
11. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Finale
12. Beetlejuice
13. Pee-wee's Big Adventure - Breakfast Machine
14. Ed Wood - Main Theme
15. Mars Attacks!


You can hear samples of the CD and purchase the album on Amazon.com.

New "Beetlejuice" DVD This September

The official poster for Beetlejuice.
No cover art for the new DVD release is available yet.

Is a new special edition DVD of Tim Burton's classic Beetlejuice coming out this September?! Yes and no. This won't be the Beetlejuice 20th anniversary DVD release of your dreams, with behind-the-scenes featurettes galore and an audio commentary track or two, from the looks of it.

Instead, this upcoming DVD, Warner Bros. has stated, will feature the 1988 macabre comedy in a newly restored and clear presentation. Also, it will include three episodes from the animated series based on the film, which was produced by Burton and David Geffen:

-"A-Ha" from Season One
-"Skeletons in the Closet" from Season Two
-"Spooky Boo-tique" from Season Two

The animated series.

The so-called "Beetlejuice (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)" will be released on standard DVD (for roughly $20) and high-definition Blu-Ray DVD ($35) in North America on September 16th, 2008.The Blu-Ray version will also include a sample CD of select tracks from the movie's score by Danny Elfman.

This upcoming DVD release is skimping on the extras for the most part. No confirmation on whether or not it will include the music-only audio track that the original, more primitive DVD release of Beetlejuice from 1998 featured (but most likely, there will not be).

Beetlejuice, released in 1988, was the second feature-length film directed by Burton. It stars Michael Keaton (Batman) in one of his craziest performances, as well as Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Robert Goulet in a brief cameo. Other Burton collaborators in the film include Catherine O'hara and Glenn Shadix (who were both in The Nightmare Before Christmas), Winona Ryder (Edward Scissorhands), and Jeffrey Jones (Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow), among others.

"Music from the Films of Tim Burton" CD

Filmscoremonthly.com has posted information about a new re-recording by Silva Screen Records...



The article says the following:

"'Music from the Films of Tim Burton'

Tim Burton’s career as a director has provided some of the most original and distinctive films in cinema history.

His long working relationship with the musical genius of Danny Elfman is the main subject of this collection of the very best music from his films.

With a collaboration lasting over 25 years, Danny Elfman’s quirky music has more than matched the strange screen worlds of Tim Burton.

Highlights include Breakfast Machine from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Main Title/Ice Dance from Edward Scissorhands, Mars Attacks! and Beetlejuice.

Also includes selections from Burton’s most recent film Sweeney Todd, composed by Stephen Sondheim."

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Main Titles – Sweeney Todd
2. No Place Like London – Sweeney Todd
3. A Little Priest – Sweeney Todd
4. Johanna – Sweeney Todd
5. Christmas Eve Montage – The Nightmare Before Christmas
6. The Piano Duet/Victor’s Piano Solo – Corpse Bride
7. End Titles – Sleepy Hollow
8. Themes - Batman
9. End Titles – Batman Returns
10. Main Title/Ice Dance – Edward Scissorhands
11. Finale – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
12. Beetlejuice - Beetlejuice
13. Breakfast Machine – Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
14. Main Title – Ed Wood
15. Mars Attacks! – Mars Attacks


This CD is not composed of the same versions of the music by Danny Elfman, Howard Shore (Ed Wood), and Stephen Sondheim, that we're familiar with. Instead, these are new recordings of those pieces, played by the City of Prague Philharmonic.

The CD will be available in the UK on June 16th, 2008, and in the US on July 7th, 2008.


Catalogue No. SILCD1261
Format: CD
Barcode: 73857 2126124
Label: SILVA SCREEN
Street Date: 16/06/2008

Rare "Ed Wood" Promo Found

A rare promotional video from 1994 advertising Tim Burton's Ed Wood was recently found and posted on YouTube.com by John Erik Taylor. The short video (a little under seven minutes long) was shown at sci-fi conventions before the film's release, and features behind-the-scenes footage and unseen interviews with the cast and crew. This promo wasn't on the Ed Wood DVD, so fans of the film and Tim Burton will find this to be a rare treat.

The promo features interviews with Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Martin Landau (in a highly memorable and moving performance as an aging Bela Lugosi), Sarah Jessica Parker (as Dolores Fuller, Wood's girlfriend and actress), screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and make-up artist Ve Neill (a frequent Burton collaborator who first worked with the director on Beetlejuice).

Here's the link to the video on YouTube.com (you can also watch it below).

"Sweeney Todd" Honored for Editing

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was honored with the award for Best Editing (Comedy or Musical) at the 58th annual ACE Eddie Awards. Editor Chris Lebenzon received the award for his work on Burton's horror-musical.

Lebenzon first worked with Tim Burton on Batman Returns in 1992. Since then, he has held the position of editor on all of Burton's film, from Ed Wood to Corpse Bride, as well as consulting editor on The Nightmare Before Christmas. Lebenzon is likely going to be editor for Burton's two upcoming feature films: Frankenweenie (2009) and Alice in Wonderland (2010).

Lebenzon was last nominated for an Eddie Award for his work on Burton's Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.

Read more about the winners and nominees of the Eddie Awards (in film and television alike) in this link.

Burton, Marie Go to Court in August

What was hoped to be a quick settlement has evolved into a drawn-out legal confrontation between director Tim Burton and his ex, Lisa Marie. The trial is set for August 12th, 2008.

Lisa Marie, 39, originally filed a lawsuit against the filmmaker in 2006.

Marie and Burton met in December 1991 and quickly moved in with one another. At that point, according to her complaint, the filmmaker promised to "share equally any and all property accumulated" and agreed to take care of her financial needs for the rest of her life.

Burton did assist Marie's career: the model appeared in four of his films -- Ed Wood in 1994, Mars Attacks! in 1996, Sleepy Hollow in 1999, and Planet of the Apes in 2001.

But while shooting their last film together, Marie's suit states, Burton dumped the model/actress for Helena Bonham Carter, who played the female lead in Apes. Bonham Carter and Tim Burton currently reside in England with their two children.

Lisa Marie's suit claims that while Burton and Bonham Carter pursued their romance, Marie felt "extremely depressed" for several months.



Marie, whose full name is Lisa Marie Smith, eventually received $2.7 million, but in 2004, she complained of a conspiracy preventing her from obtaining her fair share.

Burton fired back with his own petition, seeking a court declaration which would demand Marie abide by the original agreement.

You can read more details of the legal issue in this link.

Elijah Wood Confirms Voice for "9"

Actor Elijah Wood recently confirmed that he has lent his voice for an upcoming computer animated feature film, entitled 9. Here's what Wood said:

[T]here's a movie called 9. It's an animated film directed by Shane Acker and executive produced by Tim Burton. That is actually a fully fleshed-out version of the 9 short film that won Best Animated Short at the Oscars, I believe, a couple of years ago. It's about a post-apocalyptic world, essentially, a world where humanity has been destroyed by the machinery it has created. There are these rag dolls, these mechanized rag dolls, that are the only living thing left and they are trying to figure out who they are, and what they are and why humanity was destroyed. It's sort of (laughs) it's relatively dark fare, but the animation style is extraordinary and the story is quite an adventurous one and quite unique in regards to the animated films that have been released in the past couple of years.



The film is based on a 10 1/2 minute long short of the same name, which was directed by Shane Acker. The short took 4 1/2 years to make. It differs from its upcoming feature adaptation in that the original short did not feature any voices. Instead, an unusual semblance of unique sound effects and music moved the story along. The film was nominated for an Oscar in 2005.

Though it will be made in CGI, the computer animation is said to mimic the movement of stop-motion animation, which Tim Burton is so fond of.

Poster for the original short 9 (2004)

Other actors who have lent their voices for the upcoming project include Martin Landau (who was in Tim Burton's Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow), Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, and Christopher Plummer. Along with Burton, Timur Bekmambetov, Dana Ginsburg, Jim Lemley, and Marci Levine will produce the movie.

9 is set for a U.S. theatrical release of December 26th, 2008.

2008 Golden Globes Results

While the ceremony didn't occur this year (due to the writers' strike), a press conference revealed the winners of the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was nominated for four awards. Here are the results:

Sweeney Todd won Best Picture (Comedy or Musical category), and Johnny Depp won the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) for his role as the sinister barber, Sweeney Todd.

Tim Burton was nominated for Best Director of a motion picture (which covers both comedy/musical and drama films) and Helena Bonham Carter was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) for her role as Mrs. Lovett.


Tim Burton's films have been recognized by the Golden Globes in previous years. In 1990, Jack Nicholson was nominated for Best Actor (comedy or musical) for his performance as the twisted Joker in Burton's Batman. In 1991, Johnny Depp was nominated for Best Actor (comedy or musical) for his performance as the quiet Edward in Edward Scissorhands. In 1994, Danny Elfman's musical score for The Nightmare Before Christmas was nominated for Best Original Score. In 1995, Tim Burton's Ed Wood was recognized in three categories: Best Picture (comedy or musical), Johnny Depp for Best Actor (comedy or musical), and Martin Landau won the award for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (of any both motion picture categories) for his performance as Bela Lugosi. Big Fish was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards in 2004: Best Picture (comedy or musical), Albert Finney for Best Supporting Actor, Danny Elfman's score, and the original song for the film, "Man of the Hour" by Eddie Vedder. And in 2006, Johnny Depp was nominated for Best Actor (comedy or musical) for his performance as the wacky Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

RIP, Maila Nurmi

Maila Nurmi, better known as Vampira, died on January 10th, 2008. Born on December 21st, 1921, she lived to be 86 years old.

Nurmi's legacy is perhaps best known to fans of Tim Burton as being portrayed by Lisa Marie in Burton's 1994 film Ed Wood. As seen in the bio-pic on the B-movie director's life, Nurmi was a late-night host of classic and campy horror films on television. She appeared in Wood's most famous film, Plan 9 From Outer Space, in 1959.

After having lived a life of poverty (and a failed legal case against Elvira), Nurmi died of natural causes, peacefully in her bed.

For Depp, There Are Films, and There Are Tim Burton Films

For Johnny Depp, there are films and there are Tim Burton films. In an interview by Reuters, Depp, promoting Burton and Depp's sixth collaboration, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (which A. O. Scott of the New York Times has called ""something close to a masterpiece"), describes how he always looks forward to working with his director friend. "There are films that you do that you have enjoyed and the process is fantastic and the directors are great," says Depp. "And then there are the phone calls that you get from Tim," added the now 44-year-old actor. "That is a magical moment for me when the phone rings from Tim, because you know you are about to embark on something very very interesting."

Although Depp has been in the acting business for over twenty years, he recalls his latest collaboration with Burton -- taking on the lead, singing role of the murderous barber of Fleet Street -- as being one of his biggest challenges in his career. "It's an obtuse situation to be in when, at the ripe old age of 43, you find yourself suddenly trying to sing songs all the way through for the first time in your life," says Depp. "It's to say the least absurd and it was an odd feeling. So initially just hearing myself doing it, I was embarrassed..." But despite being "no Sammy Davis, Jr." or "no Frank Sinatra," Depp got the part as Sweeney Todd, with Stephen Sondheim's ultimate approval.

Tim Burton also fondly speaks of his many partnerships with Depp, although he feels that each film with the actor is a different experience.

"I've worked with him six times. I feel like I've worked with six different people," Burton said. "There are a lot of people that really do a very good job maintaining their persona ... they are good at being themselves in a movie. I like character actors that like to become different people, that's what energises me."

Depp and Burton at the Tokyo, Japan premiere of Sweeney Todd on January 9th, 2008.
Reuters/Michael Caronna

Burton and Depp first collaborated on Edward Scissorhands in 1990. Since then, they made Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and the animated film Corpse Bride (2005).

From Stage to Screen: Bringing a Musical to the Cinema

Bringing a staged musical to the big screen is not an easy task, especially for a production as ambitious (and beloved) as the one Tim Burton brought to cinemas: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The Times Online observes this in interviews with Tim Burton and Stephen Sondheim.

Shooting at London's Pinewood Studios was one step that allowed the making of the movie version of the Stephen Sondheim musical easier for Tim Burton (“Here, I’m more able to focus on the movie,” Burton says. “There [in Hollywood], you just feel this vibe of the business around you”). But even after over twenty years of filmmaking, Burton acknowledged how ambitious this film would be. “I’d never really done something like this,” he says. “I’d always had music in movies, but never full-blown. It’s very operatic, and almost everybody in the cast is not a professional singer. Even seasoned Broadway people are saying how difficult it is.”

Stephen Sondheim, age 77, is perhaps best known for his musical Sweeney Todd, which premiered in 1979 and is based on the urban legend of a murderous barber that lived during the nineteenth century in London. But (perhaps luckily) he is less remembered for earlier attempts at bringing his other staged musicals to movie theaters. Still, Sondheim admires film greatly, but interestingly is not typically a fan of movie musicals. “The one form of movies that I never particularly enjoyed was the movie-musical,” Sondheim cautions. “I liked the sort of fluffy musicals before the second world war, the Astaire/Rogers things, but movie-musicals that told stories have always struck me as ponderous.” It’s all down to the gulf between “stage time” and “film time”, he explains, the movie medium being unable to accommodate someone simply standing and singing for several minutes. “Take 'Tonight' from West Side Story. It’s a close-up of him, then a close-up of her, then a two-shot, then a shot of the fire escape. There’s nothing to do. You have to waste the time." (Sondheim wrote the lyrics for West Side Story).

Stephen Sondheim

Tim Burton also was never much of a fan of movie musicals, or even staged ones, for that matter. The director remembered when he first saw the show in 1980. At the time, he was a student at CalArts. “I wasn’t into theatre,” he recalls. “I’d never heard of Sondheim. I just sort of stumbled on it and it really affected me. The first time on stage I saw them singing Johanna, and with the throat, you know, the blood, I thought, ‘This is a unique juxtaposition of music and image.’” It seemed, he adds, “like a great movie score. It would lend itself to one of those old horror movies." Burton's description was not far off; Sondheim's score was at least partially a tribute to the film music of Bernard Herrmann, a film composer who is perhaps best known for his collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock (and, coincidentally, Herrmann is the biggest influence and hero of contemporary film composer Danny Elfman, who scored nearly every single Tim Burton feature film, with the exceptions of Ed Wood and Sweeney Todd).

Twelve years later, in 1992, Burton was regarded as one of Hollywood's A-list directors (after the successes of such unique blockbusters as Batman and Edward Scissorhands). The young filmmaker approached Sondheim about adapting the musical to the screen. “Then I never heard from him again,” Sondheim mutters. The Sweeney Todd film idea was passed around to other directors for more than a decade, but never grew beyond that concept. Years later, Burton was a year into pre-production for a biography on Robert Ripley, called Ripley's Believe It or Not!, which was to star Jim Carrey in the title role. The project fell through, however. Luckily, Sweeney Todd fell back into Burton's lap. “In some ways, I think the timing was more right,” he muses. “Because, having someone like Johnny, it’s like 10 years or more of life experience, which kind of informs this version.”

Sondheim's consent came with the conditions that he retained complete creative control on what stayed, what was taken out, and what changes and decisions would be made to the project's casting and score (the promise was upheld). But he was cautious of casting Johnny Depp as the lead. After hearing a homemade demo of Depp singing "My Friends" from the musical, Sondheim was convinced. “The fact that he came from a musical background, a rock band, even though he was not a lead singer, I knew he was musical,” Sondheim insists. “I also knew that he was intelligent enough not to allow himself to play this part unless he could handle it vocally.”

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp on the set of Sweeney Todd

Making the transformation from stage to screen needs to look as seamless as possible. As a result, lots of changes need to be made. For one, time must be considered; a staged musical is often longer than the average movie. “I do not believe that anything is written in marble. I want the story to move ahead,” he says. “The thing with Tim is that he understands that. Where the songs did not either suggest or need a camera, ‘Let’s cut’, Tim would say to me, or [the writer] John Logan, and I’d look at it and see if I could elide it or rewrite so it had film motion to it.”

Will hardcore fans of Broadway and Stephen Sondheim still be critical of the film re imagining of Sweeney Todd? Yes. But Burton is not disturbed by this. “I always say: this is a movie. If you want to see the Broadway show, go look at the Broadway show. It’s a different thing.”

Pictures of Burton at AFI Directors Screening in L.A.

Pictures of Tim Burton at last Friday's AFI Directors Screening have been posted, courtesy of Joshua J. Smelser. After a screening of Sweeney Todd, Burton took questions from the audience. A surprise guest introduced the director: Martin Landau, an actor who won an Academy Award for his performance as horror legend Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood and also had a small role in Sleepy Hollow.

Martin Landau and film critic Claudia Puig of USA Today.

More pictures can be viewed here.

Tim Burton Film Festival in London This December

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced that a festival of all of Tim Burton's films will go on in London from December 7th until December 30th, 2007. The films of Mr. Burton, who has been described by the BFI Southbank website as "One of modern cinema's great visionaries," will be shown as well as other films that inspired Burton's work: Glen or Glenda?, the quasi-documentary/autobiography about transvestites by Ed Wood (Starring Bela Lugosi), the B-movie filmmaker Burton made a biopic on, and House of Wax in 3D starring horror film legend and Burton's idol Vincent Price.

In addition to the film screenings, two talks with two of Burton's associates will be featured. The first talk will be with Mark Salisbury, who wrote the book Burton on Burton and recently the companion book to the film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. His talk will occur on Thursday, December 13th (click the link for more details).

The second talk will be with Academy Award-winning costume designer and long-time Burton collaborator Colleen Atwood, who will be discussing her work with the imaginative director. Atwood began working with Burton in 1990, on Edward Scissorhands, and will have more of his creations feature as the wardrobes in Burton's Sweeney Todd. The renowned costume designer has so far worked with Mr. Burton on seven feature films. Atwood will speak on Saturday, December 15th (click the link for more information). Costumes from Sweeney Todd will also be on display.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas will be just one of all of Burton's feature films that will be shown at the festival this month.

There will also be fun activities, like a "Corpse Bride Animation Workshop" and a "Nightmare Before Christmas Light, Sound & Animation Workshop."

A few additional surprises will be at this exciting event. Search the website for details, showtimes, and more!

Lisa Marie Told to Revise Lawsuit Against Tim Burton

The Associated Press has reported that, on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007, Tim Burton's ex-girlfriend, Lisa Marie, was told to revise her lawsuit against the director. The article went into detail, saying, "a judge ruled it didn't sufficiently support claims that Burton had backed out of a promise to financially support her. " Marie sued in December 2006, alleging that Burton used fraud to "cheat her out of assets he promised to share with her during their nearly 10-year, live-in relationship." Burton's attorneys said that the director already gave Marie $5 million to sign the contract, "which released him from any further claims to his assets." The judge stated that Marie and her attorneys have ten days to revise the action.



Marie was in four of Burton's films: Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks (1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), and Planet of the Apes (2001).




Photo provided by the Associated Press. This picture was taken at the 47th International Film Festival in Berlin on Saturday, February 22nd, 1997, during a press conference for Mars Attacks.