Thursday, August 18, 2022

New "Wednesday" Trailer

 Tim Burton's newest release will be the Netflix series "Wednesday", based on the classic Addams Family characters. It should be premiering in Netflix sometime this fall. A new trailer was just released, and can be seen from the link below. Let's hope this will be a good one! 

Check out the trailer at IMDB




Friday, May 28, 2021

Billy Dee Williams as Two Face finally! Sort of...

 

Were you disappointed that Billy Dee Williams never got to show his villainous side as Two Face? Now you finally get to see this happen, although just in a comic form:

Denofgeek reports that DC Comics is publishing a 6-issue limited series titled Batman ’89, which continues where Burton’s original movie left off. It is being co-scripted by Sam Hamm, who was the original screenwriter of Tim Burton’s Batman. More interestingly, Hamm was the original writer of Batman 2 as well, which would have featured Two Face and Robin. Tim Burton didn’t like the script and steered the project to more Burtonesque direction, the end result being Batman Returns (which by the way is still my favorite Batman movie of all time).

You can read the full article here: https://www.denofgeek.com/comics/batman-89-billy-dee-williams-two-face-tim-burton-sam-hamm/



Thursday, May 27, 2021

Happy birthday Vincent Price and Christopher Lee!

Today marks the 110th birthday of the great Vincent Price, and the 99th of the equally great Christopher Lee. A good time to pay respects to these legends of the movie industry!

Obviously, Tim Burton was a huge fan of both actors, and was extremely lucky to cast both in his movies. Vincent Price was first, narrating Tim’s early break through short film Vincent (1982), which told the story of a young boy who dreams of being just like the real Vincent Price.

8 years later Price and Burton got to work again, with Price appearing in a small but important role in Edward Scissorhands (1990). Playing the Inventor who created Edward, Price was already old and frail when filming the movie, making his few scenes with Johnny Depp all the more bittersweet.


Later Tim Burton started working on a documentary about Price, Conversations with Vincent, but sadly Mr Price passed away on 1993, before it was released. Tim Burton would never go on to finish the project.

Meanwhile, Christopher Lee had been appearing in quite a patchy string of movie roles through the 1990’s. His roles in comedies such as Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (1994), and The Stupids (1996) must not have been his personal favorites, but on the other hand he was very proud of his performance in the biopic Jinnah (1998).


But quite unexpectedly, in 1999 at the age of 77, Christopher Lee would appear in a hit movie, which would mark the start of a remarkable 10+ year run of roles in the very biggest of Hollywood blockbuster hits. This 1999 movie was of course Sleepy Hollow, where Tim Burton cast Lee in a small but powerful role as the Burgomaster who sends Johnny Depp’s Ichabod Crane on his fateful assignment to the town of Sleepy Hollow.

Lee followed this by appearing in The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars prequel trilogies, whose directors Peter Jackson and George Lucas were, like Tim Burton, childhood fans of Lee’s early works in the horror genre. In 2005 Lee and Burton got to work again in two movies; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride. Lee’s final appearances in Burton movies came in Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Dark Shadows (2012), in more minor roles.

Both Price and Lee worked with Burton towards the ends of their careers, which partly resulted in their roles being relatively small. But however limited their screen times might have been, they did offer very memorable and powerful performances within those moments. And for the lifelong fans of these two gentlemen, even just the thrill of seeing their names on the always beautiful opening credits of a Tim Burton movie was always a treat.

Each of the 6 feature length movies that Burton did with either Price or Lee had the same main star, Johnny Depp. Somehow this feels fitting, perhaps because Depp seems to possess some of the same ageless celluloid charisma as the old masters.  It’s also interesting to see Price as Depp’s creator/father in Edward Scissorhands, and then Lee as Depp’s father in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Perhaps sometime in the future Depp might return to the limelight, as an elderly character actor, playing a Price/Lee type of role in a Tim Burton movie?

Of course the careers of Vincent Price and Christopher Lee spanned decades and included dozens of memorable roles, much more than I could list here. I will just conclude by listing a few of my favorites, which I urge everyone to seek out.

a few Vincent Price favorites:

The Three Musketeers (1948)

The Baron of Arizona (1950)

House of Usher (1960)

The Masque of Red Death (1964)

Witchfinder General (1968)

The Abominable Dr. Phibes & Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1971-1972)

a few Christopher Lee favorites:

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)

Taste of Fear (1961)

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

The Three Musketeers (1973)

The Wicker Man (1973)

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Timothée Chalamet cast as young Willy Wonka in a prequel movie

Okay so not strictly Tim Burton related, since this prequel is not related to Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, nor is Tim Burton involved with this project. 

But in any case, it will be interesting to see how Chalamet's performance compares to Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp. He is one of the most talented young actors working today, after all. For Burton fans it will be fun to see if this brings any renewed interest on the Burton version. Maybe I'll be able to sell off those Charlie trading cards in eBay now? 

For details about the new movie "Wonka", check out the original report by Deadline: https://deadline.com/2021/05/timothee-chalamet-willy-wonka-warner-bros-1234762658/  

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Danny Elfman Stops By Disneyland to Read Nightmare Before Christmas

Danny Elfman stopped by Disneyland to read the opening to Burton-classic The Nightmare Before Christmas and to talk about his music being used on the ride Haunted Mansion Holiday.

In the clip below, Elfman reads the opening to The Nightmare Before Christmas as previously read by Patrick Stewart. Elfman die-hards will know that he has recorded the opening before on the The Jack 2 Pack (The Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack) back in 2006. Following Elfman's reading is a clip promoting the upcoming concert series Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton taking place in Los Angeles on Halloween. 


Elfman was also interviewed after the reading to discuss how excited he is to have his music featured on the Haunted Holiday Mansion ride found in Disneyland. "I remember the whole thing as one big favorite moment," Elfman says about the ride. Elfman goes on the say that having his music in the ride is "such a dream come true." 


Will you be heading out to any of the Elfman/Burton shows or heading over to Disneyland to check out Haunted Mansion Holiday? Let us know in the comments below!   (T. Starr)

Friday, September 19, 2014

Trailer for Big Eyes released!

Today, we saw the first trailer released for Tim's much-anticipated drama, "Big Eyes" starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. The 2 minute and 30 second trailer gives us a little taste of what we can expect, not only in terms of direction from Burton, but even the score by long-time friend of Tim's, Danny Elfman. If the trailer is anything to go by, the film will be going down a path more of Burton's 2003 drama, "Big Fish" and not one of Gothic fantasy that we have grown accustomed to. Check out the trailer on Yahoo! Movies and let us know in the comments below your thoughts on the upcoming film and if you will be seeing it this coming Christmas?  (T. Starr)

Friday, May 02, 2014

"Big Eyes" Release Date Announced


The release date for Tim Burton's next feature film, Big Eyes, has been announced: Christmas Day 2014.

Here is ComingSoon.net's synopsis of the film:

"Big Eyes, starring Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman and Terence Stamp, is a biopic of artist Margaret Keane, the painter whose distinctive creations featuring big-eyed children became one of art's first mass-market success stories in the 1950s. The drama covers Keane's personal awakening at the onset of the feminist movement, leading to a lawsuit she filed against her husband, Walter, who claimed credit for her works. He lived the high life while she toiled in relative anonymity in the Bay Area."

The screenplay is written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (who wrote the script for Ed Wood), and will be released by the Weinstein Company.