Producers Behind "Frankenweenie"

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

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

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

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

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

Don Hahn

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

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

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

"Alice in Wonderland" Release Date Announced

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

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

"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.

John August: Hinting at Unknown Future Burton Films?

On his official website, screenwriter and Burton collaborator John August wrote in his blog that, contrary to claims made on such websites as IMDb.com (which have now been changed), he will not be writing the screenplay for Burton's upcoming stop-motion adaptation of the director's short film, Frankenweenie. August wrote the following on his blog:


"I had a meeting with Disney Animation about a year ago, in which they pitched the idea of doing a feature version of Tim’s Frankenweenie short film. They even had production art for it. Then, separately, I had a conversation with Tim about doing another stop-motion animation project like Corpse Bride.

"But they’re not the same thing. And as far as I know, I won’t be working on either one. (That said, I didn’t think I was working on Corpse Bride until I was halfway on a plane to London, so never say never.)"

John August first worked with Tim Burton when he wrote the screenplay for 2003's Big Fish. Directly after that fanciful odyssey, August wrote the screenplay for Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the final draft for Corpse Bride, both released in 2005. August also helped composer Danny Elfman adapt and write the whimsical lyrics for both Charlie and Corpse Bride.

August's blog entry is made even more interesting in the following excerpt:

"To further confuse matters, there’s a different and as-yet-unannounced Tim Burton project (live action) which I almost certainly will be writing post-strike. And yes, I’d love to tell you what it is. But I can’t."

This project can't be Burton's upcoming Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which will also be made at Walt Disney Pictures. Linda Woolverton already has the credit of writing the screenplay for that future literary adaptation. So John August seems to be hinting at possibly two unknown future Tim Burton films, one live-action, the other in stop-motion animation. What could these films be? We'll have to wait for future articles to appear...

Two New Pee-wee Movies?

In 1985, Paul Reubens brought his original character, the zany man-child Pee-wee Herman, to the big screen. This same film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, was also Tim Burton's directorial debut in the world of feature-length motion pictures.

It's been over twenty years since that widely acclaimed, box-office winning, and quotable cult classic came into popular culture. Now, Mr. Reubens, though a bit older (but still plenty Pee-wee) is considering making two more films featuring his infamous alter ego.

"I feel like the time is really ripe right now," Reubens said on why he's interested in making more Pee-wee movies at this point in time. "A lot of the kids who grew up with the show are young adults. The college kids are middle-aged adults. I feel like I have enough of a built-in audience to make back an investment."

Reubens reported that he has two scripts ready to go. The first concerns an extension of his multi-Emmy Award winning children's series, Pee-wee's Playhouse. This feature-length adaptation will bring the characters into a whole new realm. "We never really went out into what we call puppet land," Reubens recalled of the show. "And this [film] takes place out of the playhouse. I think there are one or two scenes in the playhouse in the beginning. Basically it's all in a fantasy land," he said. "It's like a 'Wizard of Oz,' H.R. Pufnstuf epic adventure story." The whole assemblage of characters will hopefully be there, in their live-action human and puppet forms alike.

Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman

Photo: Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images

The second storyline is one that Reubens called "the dark Pee Wee movie," is "not really very dark" and certainly not intended to be an R-rated film. "It's basically the story of Pee-wee Herman becoming famous as a singer," he explained. "He has a hit single and gets brought out to Hollywood to make musical movies, kind of like they did with Elvis. It all kind of goes downhill from there for Pee-wee. He turns into a monster. He does everything wrong and becomes a big jerk." Though he described it as a movie "about fame," Reubens insisted, "It's not autobiographical."

But will audiences buy a 55-year-old man-child, even if it is Pee-wee? People have noted that Reubens still has the energy, humor, and essence of his character from over two decades ago. But if that isn't enough, Reubens has a plan: "My second option is to have Johnny Depp play Pee-wee," he said. Reubens insisted that he's even spoken to Depp about it, saying that the actor told him, "Let me think about it."

Will Tim Burton and Paul Reubens collaborate again? After Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Reubens and Burton collaborated again on Batman Returns (1992) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Reubens admitted that he talked to Burton about the possibility of bringing these new Pee-wee projects to the big screen in the future, but acknowledged his old collaborator's own busy schedule. "I have talked to Tim about one of them about a year ago. But Tim is booked. I think he would be interested in it, but he's really busy." Indeed, Burton will soon be working on a feature-length version of Frankenweenie (the original short film from 1984 was what made Reubens decide that Burton was perfect for directing the first Pee-wee Herman movie) and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Reubens is still searching, but remains optimistic. "I think it's really just a question of the right person coming along. I've had opportunities to do [the films] with people who didn't feel like the right people. It just takes one person."

Burton on New "Frankenweenie"

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

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

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

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

Burton "Devastated" by "Ripley's" Problems

The Los Angeles Times reported that Tim Burton felt "pretty devastated" by the failure of the development of a film he was going to work on last year, Ripley's Believe It or Not!. Burton had already begun planning locations for shooting the film in China, when Paramount Pictures shut down pre-production due to budget issues. Ripley's was to be a biographical movie ("bio-pic") on Robert Ripley, a cartoonist and filmmaker who traveled the world looking for bizarre oddities and curiosities. The film was to star Jim Carrey in the title role, and reportedly Gong Li, as well. "I know it's a business," Burton said of Ripley's with a frustrated tone of voice. "But for those of us working on the film, you get excited, and it's an art form. They should feel lucky that you treat it like an art form." Shortly after, however, a new project from Paramount came up for Mr. Burton: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Ripley's may still happen someday, but likely not with Burton (since he will be working on Alice in Wonderland and a feature-length, stop-motion animated version of Frankenweenie with Disney in the next couple of years).

The article goes on to talk about Sweeney Todd, but beware of SPOILERS! Approach with caution!: Article.

Update: The Producers of Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" Announced

Playbill News has stated that Richard D. Zanuck, Joe Roth with Suzanne and Jennifer Todd will produce Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland at Disney. Roth and the two Todds are first-time Burton collaborators, but Richard D. Zanuck has produced every live-action film by Tim Burton since 2001's Planet of the Apes. The article also stated that production for Alice will commence in January 2008. Burton will not be working on Alice and his stop-motion remake of Frankenweenie simultaneously. Instead, production on the upcoming animated film about a boy and his resurrected dog will begin after Alice. Walt Disney Pictures is expecting production on Alice to be finished by the end of May 2008.

Updates on the New Films

A new article has stated that Linda Woolverton, who wrote the screenplays for the Disney animated features Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, will be penning the script for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie. In addition, both Alice and the stop-motion, feature-length version of Frankenweenie will be shown in theaters in the Disney Digital 3D format. The 3D format has received a reborn interest among many film studios in Hollywood. Several new films and old classics will be released or re-released in the 3D format in the coming years. This year, Tim Burton's brain-child from 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and his 1982 stop-motion short Vincent (in participating theaters), were shown in 3D.

Shooting for Alice will commence early in 2008 and is set to end production by the end of May that year. Burton will then go on to work on Frankenweenie, also with the Walt Disney Co.

NEW PROJECTS?!

Reuters and the Hollywood Reporter have announced that Tim Burton has signed on with the Walt Disney Co. to make two new film projects: Alice in Wonderland and a full-length, stop-motion version of Frankenweenie.

Alice in Wonderland, based on the original Lewis Carroll tale, will be shot with a combination of live-action and motion-capture technology. Shooting will begin early 2008. Rumors about Burton adapting the story have been circulating on the Internet for years, but this is certainly the closest thing to an official announcement that has appeared thus far.

The second project announced in the article, also in collaboration with the Walt Disney Co., Frankenweenie, is an adaptation of Burton's very own live-action short film he made while at Disney in 1984. This was the film that made Paul Reubens discover the young director and asked him to make his first feature-length film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, in 1985. Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Pictures, hinted that a prominent filmmaker in recent stop-motion features would be working with Disney in the near future. This is likely that film. In the book Burton on Burton, director Tim Burton said that he felt that Frankenweenie could have been a full-length feature film.

More details to come in the near future! Stay tuned!