Shane Acker on "9"

FearNet.com spoke with Shane Acker, director of 9, at Comic-Con. FearNet first asked Acker what he felt attracted Tim Burton to the project:

"I think," Acker said, "[Tim Burton lent his name to the project] because of the visual style of the film, the design aesthetic ad the fact that it's trying to do something different and new with the animated medium for the western audience. He really redefined stop-motion animation for the American audience and he's always trying to push the boundaries and the limits, so I think there was something about this that provoked him in some way."

Acker also discussed what horror films and aesthetics influenced his post-apocalyptic animated movie.

"It's gothic more than dark," he said. "The backdrop is a destroyed world, but we're trying to find beauty and imagination in that world rather than [focus on] how depressing it all is. I grew up watching horror films, but remember – these are the horror films of the ‘80s, horror films that have a kind of fantastical element to them. I love the creatures and the mythology that was behind them. It's not these kinds of slasher/torture films which, frankly, I don't get it. It doesn't do anything for me. There's nothing ultimately that creative about them. I like design and I like fantasy and I think that's what I grew up with. John Carpenter's The Thing, I think, is just a seminal movie for me, a touchstone movie, a perfect movie in some sense. So that's what I draw inspiration from. And people say, ‘Oh they're horror, they're dark,' but I think they're fun and they're exciting and they're really creative and they're fantasy. It's just my sensibility, but, yeah, those are the kinds of worlds I like to explore."

Burton on "9," Comic-Con

MTV News spoke with Tim Burton about his coming to Comic-Con next week to discuss Alice in Wonderland, 3D cinema, and the animated science-fiction movie 9. Burton will visit San Diego's Comic-Con on Friday, July 24th, and offered his memories of going to Comic-Con when he was in college.

"I went when I was a student at CalArts," he told MTV News. "I'll never forget this, and it’s probably why I haven’t been back since, because it was so terrifying. They had a slideshow for the original 'Superman,' and in the middle of it some fan gets up and just very angrily goes, 'Superman would not change into his costume on the ledge of a building! You are destroying the mythology of Superman!' And he got up and walked out, followed by other people. That scared the s--t out of me! So I haven’t been back since then."

"It'll be interesting to see how it's changed over the years," said Burton.

He then talked about 9, created and directed by Shane Acker. Burton became a producer on the feature when he saw Acker's original short film, and became very excited about it.

"I just love the texture and stop-motion feel to it," said Burton. "I know animation is broadening its horizons but this just felt different... I liked the world that [Acker] created and the texture. It felt like a different type of animated film. The visuals were helping to create the story. I just felt very in tune with the look and feel of it."



"Our goal as producers—if you see someone you like, you don’t want to suppress them — the goal was to create an environment where he can do his thing," Burton continued. "My attitude is always to give suggestions and if he uses them fine, if not, okay. We wanted this to be grounded and slightly realistic in the similar vein to stop-motion, let the film breathe. We wanted it to have mystery and let it breathe."

And how much will fans be able to see of the film if they attend Comic-Con this July? Burton didn't say much, but teased, "Probably a sequence or two."


Images from Focus Features.

Sheen on White Rabbit

Like Stephen Fry giving information on the Chesire Cat, Twitter has provided some details on Alice in Wonderland once again -- this time from Michael Sheen:


@michaelsheen Are you just the voice of the white Rabbit in Tim Burton's Alice? Or will you be it physically?about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to michaelsheen
nessdm
Venessa DM
Footer

# @nessdm Just voice. All the animal characters are cg or stop motion.9 minutes ago from web in reply to nessdm
#


Read Michael Sheen's Twitter here.

Animation Galore in "Wonderland"

Jim Hill Media was said that Alice in Wonderland "will feature a spectacular sequence of Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole that mixes live action, CG, stop motion as well as hand-drawn animation."

That's all the news for now. More to come in the future!

"Frankenweenie" Updates

John August (Getty Images photo)

It has been many months since we last heard anything about the upcoming stop-motion animated feature length remake of Tim Burton's Frankenweenie. But finally, more information has surfaced.

The film is clearly still in pre-production. John August (who wrote the scripts for other Burton movies) will be writing the screenplay. Allison Abbate, a producer on Corpse Bride and other animated films, will still produce Frankenweenie alongside Burton, and Disney producer Don Hahn will serve as an executive producer. Many other artists and crew members from Corpse Bride will be involved. Frankenweenie will also be shot in black and white at this point, like the original short film.

Burton has wanted to adapt his original 1984 live-action short Frankenweenie since it was first made nearly 25 years ago. From the looks of it, that will eventually become a reality. Frankenweenie is aiming for a release in Disney Digital 3D in participating theaters in 2011.

"Alice" to Feature Stop-Motion Animation

For those of you that were hoping that Tim Burton would use old-fashioned technology in his films, we have good news: Alan Rickman confirmed in an interview on MoviesOnline that Alice in Wonderland will feature stop-motion animation, along with live-action and computer-generated elements.

You can read the full interview here. Here's an excerpt:

MoviesOnline: What are you playing in Alice in Wonderland?

ALAN RICKMAN: The caterpillar.

MoviesOnline: A caterpillar? How do you get into something like that?

ALAN RICKMAN: Well, fortunately it’s animated.

MoviesOnline: Oh, okay.

ALAN RICKMAN: But it’s my face on an animated caterpillar. So, it’s a mixture. The movie is a mixture of live action, animation, and stop motion, so it’s very complicated and I don’t think all three have been put together ever before.

MoviesOnline: Oh, I don’t think so. No.

ALAN RICKMAN: So I’ll be with a live action Alice. I will be a construct.

MoviesOnline: Who is the Alice that you’re playing opposite?

ALAN RICKMAN: Mia [Wasikowska] is her name. I don’t know her surname. I met her yesterday because they’re shooting right here. If you make yourself into the invisible person, you can go in and have a look. She’s a young 19-year-old, apparently absolutely brilliant and certainly delightful person.

OFFICIAL: Depp in "Wonderland"

After months of speculation, it has been made official: Johnny Depp will play the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland.

Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, has confirmed this on Wednesday.

In addition to Alice, Depp will also be in two other upcoming Disney films: he will return as Captain Jack Sparrow in the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and as the Lone Ranger's sidekick, Tonto, in a new cinematic adaption of the western serial (Depp is part Cherokee in addition to his German and Irish ancestry).

It has also been declared that Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Ken Ralston (who won awards for Robert Zemeckis' films Forrest Gump and Who Framed Roger Rabbit) is on set in London as the senior visual effects supervisor, working with Sony Pictures Imageworks on the animation. David Schaub is the animation supervisor and Sean Phillips and Carey Villegas are visual effects supervisors for Imageworks.


But after all of this talk about Alice in Wonderland, some of us are still wondering about Tim Burton's other film in his two-flick agreement with Walt Disney Studios: a feature-length, stop-motion animated version of Frankenweenie.

The fact is, no big recent news has come up, but it is still in the works (Burton confirmed this on the new DVD release of The Nightmare Before Christmas). Production will commence on the stop-motion adaptation as soon as shooting for Alice is completed (right now, pre-production is going underway). Both Frankenweenie and Alice in Wonderland will be released in theaters presented in Disney Digital 3-D (as will many of the studio's other future projects).

No word on whether Depp will provide his voice for Frankenweenie yet, though.

Additional Henry Selick Interview

We've got some more interview with The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick here. In this detailed Q&A, Selick discusses difficult and challenging scenes to animate, whether Walt would've approved of his macabre holiday treat, and the possibilities of returning to Halloween Town, among other topics.

Do you find it ironic that Nightmare has become a Disney property when it was originally released as a Touchstone Picture? When did you start seeing the shift with Disney embracing the film?

Henry Selick: "Yes. Nightmare was just too different from what Disney was having success with. Although I don't think Walt Disney himself would have had a problem with it being labeled a Disney film. Just check out some of the sequences from Fantasia, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Ward Kimball's goons and monsters in Sleeping Beauty etc. and you'll see Nightmare and its characters were carrying on in the same tradition. While it took some time, about 7 years ago when the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland was transformed into a Nightmare extravaganza, we then felt we were truly loved by the Disney label."

Who is your personal favorite character in Nightmare Before Christmas?

Henry Selick: "The one I'm closest to is Jack Skellington because, as a director, you often have to act out various characters for your animators. Since I resemble Jack Skellington more than the other characters, I think more of my gestures got into Jack."

Was there resistance at first to do Nightmare as stop-motion instead of cel animation?

Henry Selick: "There was resistance to doing it at all at first. When Tim first pitched it to Disney in the early 1980s, there was resistance to the project in any medium. But 10 years later when the film was made, there was never an issue about it being stop-motion. It was simply a case of that is how Tim conceived it."

How early in the process was Oogie Boogie developed?

Henry Selick: "Oogie started out as the size of a pillowcase and not that scary or evil or important, but as the story developed I felt the need to grow him in both his scale and his role. Ultimately, Danny Elfman's Oogie Boogie song is what truly defined his character as the villain and Jack's role was fully defined as a misguided hero."

How difficult was it to do the Oogie Boogie sequence? With all the neon, it seems like it was one of the more complicated set pieces in the film. If not, what was the most difficult sequence to achieve?

Henry Selick: "It was not the neon that was difficult. It was Oogie Boogie himself. He was a huge puppet, very difficult to muscle around. It was almost as if he was trying to push back while you were animating him."

Was there a character created for Nightmare that you loved that never made it past the conceptual stage?

Henry Selick: "No, we were desperate to flesh out the town. After you go through the mummy and vampires etc it gets slim. We used everything we came up with."

What was the most intricate scene to complete?

Henry Selick: "While virtually every bit of the stop-motion animation was challenging, there were several particularly difficult scenes to pull off. One began where Jack is shot out of the sky with his Skellington reindeer flying over head and being shot down and lands in the arms of the angel statue in a graveyard and goes on to sing a song there while the camera continuously circles him. The opening song of the film This is Halloween was monstrously challenging as it introduced all the Halloween Town monsters to the audience."

Have you ever considered returning to the world of Nightmare Before Christmas?

Henry Selick: "There has been discussions over the years about a possible sequel. When those discussions came up about 7 years ago, it was unsettling that it was suggested this time it would have to be done in CG. I'm glad that did not happen. But as far as coming up ideas for a sequel, you have to admit there are a lot of other great holidays for Jack Skellington to take over."

What was the biggest lesson you carried away from the Nightmare Before Christmas experience?

Henry Selick: "When possible always work with geniuses like Tim Burton who are not only creatively inspiring, but in his case also have the clout to protect the film from the studio system."

You can read the full interview here.

Henry Selick Talks "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

Henry Selick and Tim Burton

Celebrating the 15th anniversary of The Nightmare Before Christmas, MovieWeb.com has a brand new interview with director Henry Selick online. In it, Selick discusses working with Tim Burton, the making of Nightmare, his upcoming film Coraline, and much more. The entire interview is below:

Does a film like Nightmare naturally looking amazing in high def or does the translation and remastering take a lot of work?

Henry Selick: The fact is the film was originally shot in 35mm film, each image is pristine with no blur, so the source material is already high def , more so than a standard film, so the mastering is less of a challenge.

The DVD already makes the animation look so clear. What new details will we notice in Blu-Ray?

Henry Selick: Some of the details that may become apparent in Blu-ray are that we tried to add texture to all the characters and backgrounds as if they were an engraving, for example you'll see that Jack's stripes on his suit are hand drawn, and the hills behind also have hand made textures built into them. Additional details would be things like the leaves rhat Sallie is stuffed with, the bugs inside Oogie Boogie. Look into the shadow areas, there are hidden details there that have never shown up on previous DVD but will show up on the Blu-ray.

As a kid I was mesmerized by the old 7th voyage of Sinbad (Ray) Harryhausen film. What stop-motion film got you as a kid and inspired your career path?

Henry Selick: The early Harryhausen, Jason and the Argonauts in particular. I also love the Seventh Voyage, the best cyclops that will ever be done. There was just this wonderful sense that Harryhausen's monsters were real, despite the sort of lurching quality they had, they had an undeniable reality to them.

I read it took over three years of your life, and involved a small army of ILM artists, can you share with fans just how labor intensive this was for you, and what was the hardest element in finishing the film? Also, did you use any other effects houses than ILM?

Henry Selick: ILM are the ones who did the 3D adaption, not the original film. We hired several ILM veterans to work on the original film however. Virtually all animation is labor intensive, since it was what I do it did not seem any harder than others. The small army topped out at under 200 people. Because the range of talents and abilities, there was always something amazing and wonderful to see virtually every day, so that the long journey of production was reinspired regularly. We used Disney's fledgling effects unit in Burbank and they created the very simple snow that falls at the end of the film. Other than that it was all pretty much done by hand in house.

Has it surprised you how much Nightmare has been absorbed into the pop culture stratosphere -- goth kids at Hot Topic wearing Jack belts and arm bands and the like?

Henry Selick: At this point, 15 years later after the original release, I've grown used to seeing Jack and Sallie turn up all over the place. But this did not happen right away it has taken years for our initial cult audience to grow into a pop culture phenomenon. Just this past Halloween, we had some girls show up at the house in NBChristmas costumes and my wife and I pointed out one of the original Jack Skellington and the Skellington Reindeer which was in our office, it blew their minds and they screamed with joy, taking their handfuls of candy and went away just full of life.

What is it about stop-motion that originally captured your attention?

Henry Selick: I love all sorts of animation, probably the most beautiful would be the tradtional hand drawn animation that Disney is known for. Stop-motion has a certain "grittieness" and is filled with imperfections, and yet their is an undeniable truth, that what you see really exits, even it if is posed by hand, 24 times a second. This truth is what I find most attractive about stop-motion animation.

What was the biggest lesson you carried away from the The Nightmare Before Christmas experience?

Henry Selick: When possible always work with geniuses like Tim Burton, who are not only creatively inspiring but in his case, also have the clout to protect the film from the studio system.

How was your working relationship with Tim Burton?

Henry Selick: Working with Tim was great, he came up with a brilliant idea, designed the main characters, fleshed out the story, got Danny Elfman to write a bunch of great songs. He got the project on its feet and then stood back and watched us fly with it. Tim, who made two live-action features in L.A. while we were in San Francisco making Nightmare, was kept in the loop throughout the process, reviewing storyboards and animation. When we completed the film Tim came in with his editor Chris [Lebenzon] to pace up the film and make a particular story adjust to make Lock, Shock, and Barrel just a touch nicer.

How did you originally come on board to this project?

Henry Selick: I was working with Tim at Disney in the early 1980s when he first conceived the poem and idea of Jack Skellingon taking over Christmas. Sculptor Rick Heinrichs took the original characters designed by Tim: Jack, Zero and Sandy Claws and created beautiful maquettes that showed what they'd be like as stop motion characters. It was originally pitched to Disney as a TV special but was rejected. I had moved to Northern California where I worked as storyboard artist and a stop motion filmmaker with short flims, TV commericals and MTV. While Tim went on to achieve great success in live action. I got a call from Rick and he said there was something important we must talk about in person. He flew to San Francisco and said Tim is making The Nightmare Before Christmas and wants you to direct it. I met with Tim and Danny Elfman and my small crew that I had been working with immediately became supervisors on a feature film.

How is the directing process on a stop-motion film different from directing live-action or even regular animation?

Henry Selick: Directing stop motion animation is actually a sort of combination of directing live action and 'regular' animation. We have real sets, real lights, real cameras. There is a costume department, a hair department and our puppets are the actors. Like regular animation it is a divide and conquer. It is all divided up into manageable pieces, edited in storyboards before the movie is made and then shot a frame a time like traditional animation.

What is the next step in stop-motion technology? We've read about the new stereoscopic dual digital camera rig you're using on Coraline. How will the end result be different from The Nightmare Before Christmas?

Henry Selick: Shooting stereoscopically just gives you more of what is there, just a little more sense of the reality of this medium, it does not live in the computer nor is it a series of drawings, it's an actual real set and puppets.

What major changes have occurred in this kind of filmmaking in the time between The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline?

Henry Selick: Mainly it is the ability to capture images in a computer while you shoot. When we did Nightmare we could capture 2 images total. Now you can shoot the whole scene and play it back while you animate. This assists the animator but actually slows down the process because they keep checking it every time they shoot a new frame. Computers have slowed down what is already a time consuming process.

How would you compare adapting Neil Gaiman in Coraline with adapting Tim Burton's designs on Nightmare?

Henry Selick: I think that both Tim and Neil are extremely imaginative and real creators. In Tim's case he is a visual artist so the look of the film came from his sensibilities. Neil is not a visual artist, so I created the visual look of Coraline, but as far as sensibilities, I think there is a little more whimsy in Tim's work, a little more sweet with the sours, comfort with the scary, but I'd probaly exclude Sweeney Todd. Neil goes a little more darker, primal like a Grimms fairytale.

How many of the original puppets do you have in your house?

Henry Selick: The main one I have is Jack Skelligton as Santa with his Skeleton Reindeer in his sled led by Zero. It is prominently displayed in my office where occasional trick or treaters get let IF they are wearing The Nightmare Before Christmas attire.

The Nightmare Before Christmas comes back to DVD in a Collector's Edition, Ultimate Collector's Edition and Blu-Ray edition on August 26.

Update on New "Nightmare" DVDs

What's this? It's something new!...

Walt Disney Home Entertainment has released information regarding the upcoming DVD release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. The film will be available as a two-disc standard DVD and a single-disc Blu-ray version.

The extras include:

• A Special Introduction by Tim Burton
• What's This? Jack's Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour: Viewers choose the way they want to tour Disneyland's Holiday Haunted Mansion. "On Track" explores a tricked-out version of the Haunted Mansion, while "Off Track" reveals what went into creating all the creepy fun.
• Tim Burton's Original poem narrated by Christopher Lee: Tim Burton's poem that inspired the creation of the movie comes to creepy life as performed by legendary actor Christopher Lee.
• Film Commentary: Commentary by producer and writer Tim Burton, director Henry Selick and composer Danny Elfman.
• Introduction To Frankenweenie!: A new un-cut version introduction by Tim Burton.
• The Making of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Go behind the scenes of the very first full-length stop motion animated movie with the filmmakers.
• The Worlds of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Witness the creation of the film's richly imagined dreamscapes, including Halloween Town, Christmas Town and the Real World.
• Deleted Scenes
• Storyboard to Film Comparison
• Original Theatrical Trailers and Posters
• Tim Burton's Complete Short Film Vincent.

No significant featurettes seem to be missing from this release, set for August 26th, 2008, with the exception of the audio commentary track which featured Henry Selick and director of photography Pete Kozachik. That extra was on the earlier DVD release.

All of these features will be available on both the two-disc standard DVD and the Blu-ray version, with the exception of the special introduction by Tim Burton to the film, which is Blu-ray exclusive.

For tech buffs, the specs include 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video (1.66:1), English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Surround and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio (both 48kHz/24-bit), and English, French and Spanish subtitles.

That immensely expensive DVD collector's pack that was mentioned in the original TBC News article will be comprised of the two-disc standard DVD version and an individually numbered and hand-painted bust of Jack Skellington. Equipped with his Sandy Claws hat and beard, the collectible Jack figurine will have a sound chip built into it, which plays quotes from the movie.

Also, in a first for Disney, both the normal DVD and Blu-ray versions will come with a digital copy of the movie -- called a "Disneyfile" -- which will be compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media Player.

Interesting that the DVD will include an introduction to Frankenweenie. This is probably just a video introduction to the original live-action short film by Burton from 1984. But might it also hint at a preview of Burton's upcoming stop-motion, feature-length version of the movie?... Well, I guess we shouldn't get too greedy...

No cover art yet, but we'll keep you posted!

New "Nightmare Before Christmas" DVDs?!

According to videobusiness.com, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment will launch its first embedded digital copy within the standard DVD and Blu-Ray releases of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Collector's Edition on August 26th, 2008.

Special features on this upcoming release include commentary by producer/creator Tim Burton, director Henry Selick, and composer/lyricist and the singing voice of Jack Skellington, Danny Elfman. The original poem written by Burton will also be read by Burton collaborator and horror movie legend Christopher Lee. There will also be a video tour of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion ride, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the stop-motion cult classic, and Burton's original short film from 1982, Vincent, narrated by Burton's idol, Vincent Price, and many other bonus materials.

The Blu-Ray edition will also feature an exclusive introduction by Tim Burton.

This new release of Nightmare will be available as a two-disc standard DVD ($32.99), a single-disc Blu-Ray version ($39.99), and a limited edition Ultimate Collector's standard DVD set ($179.99), states the website.

We hope that this exciting news is indeed true, and that more information will come along in the near future.

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!

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.

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...

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.

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!

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!

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" Returns to 3D

The official website for the 3D theatrical version has stated that the stop-motion classic The Nightmare Before Christmas will be re-released in U.S. theaters on Friday, October 19th, 2007. There is also word that Tim Burton's stop-motion animated short, Vincent, will play before the feature, although news of this has not been mentioned for a few months.

"Vincent" in 3D and "Sweeney Todd" Release Dates Announced!

The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.movieweb.com/news/53/18853.php) has some good news for Burton fans: Not only is The Nightmare Before Christmas going to return to theaters in 3D this fall, but Tim Burton's 1982 stop-motion short film, Vincent, will also be released with it, also in 3D!

For anyone who wants to mark their calendars, some release dates for Tim Burton's next feature film, Sweeney Todd, have been released. ComingSoon.net (http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=16053) has said that Sweeney Todd is set for limited release (most likely Los Angeles and New York City) just in time for Christmas, on December 21st, 2007. However, anyone living in the US but not in that area might need to wait until January 11th, 2008 for the wide release of the Sondheim musical's big-screen debut. IMDb.com (http://imdb.com/title/tt0408236/releaseinfo) has listed release dates for other countries (however, it is not officially determined if all of these are accurate or not):

Italy	5 September 2007	(Venice Film Festival)
USA	21 December 2007	(limited)
Norway	11 January 2008
USA	11 January 2008
Australia	24 January 2008
Netherlands	24 January 2008
UK	25 January 2008