Rick Heinrichs on "Dark Shadows"

Production designer Rick Heinrichs and Tim Burton go way, way back. Although you're certainly familiar with their collaborations on The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, and Planet of the Apes (to name a few), the two began working together as film students in the 1980s, and projects such as Hansel and Gretel and Vincent. Now, they're teaming up again for Dark Shadows.

Heinrichs spoke with Blog of Dark Shadows recently:

BLOG OF DARK SHADOWS: What are your overall feelings about becoming a part of the project; what made you say yes?

RICK HEINRICHS: I’m a fan of Tim’s movies as well a colleague and I’m delighted to be working with him again. I also love the genre of this film.

BLOG OF DARK SHADOWS: Were you a fan of the original series or the ’91 revival?

RICK HEINRICHS: I was aware of Dark Shadows growing up for the fact that a lot of kids were running home from school to watch the series in the afternoon. It seemed an odd subject to me for a soap opera. Now of course I realize the brilliance of showcasing it as a soap: the interplay of extreme emotions pouring from the different characters brought about by this courtly vampire in their midst. I also noticed that a majority of the fans seemed to be female and I wondered what was up with that. Obviously this was before I realized that the opposite sex could be romantically attracted to the doomed bad boy. Or was it bat-boy? At that time, I was looking at horror comics like Creepy and Eerie and the work of Jim Steranko and others. That’s where I first experienced the pleasure of stories that recognized the fine line between humor and horror.

BLOG OF DARK SHADOWS: Does the experience of Sleepy Hollow serve as a kind of stepping stone for this film? Of all of Tim Burton’s films, it is the one that most closely hits on the whole Dark Shadows feeling, I think.

RICK HEINRICHS: Sleepy Hollow was the story of a rational man’s journey into the irrational. We intentionally wanted Ichabod Crane’s investigation in upstate New York to have a progressively dreamlike quality ultimately leading to a nightmare. While the two movies do share certain genre aspects as well as the male lead, it’s certainly going to be a different feeling film.

BLOG OF DARK SHADOWS: Do you envision it being a challenge capturing visual elements of that show, yet updating it for the modern audience, or is it a completely different kettle of fish?

RICK HEINRICHS: It’s not a completely different kettle of fish. The reason [we're] doing Dark Shadows to a degree is to explore and relish what was great about that series and the character of Barnabas Collins, and we intend to make it a world the series’ many fans will enjoy.

Is Burton Another Warhol?

Tim Burton at MoMA. Photo by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE.


Tim Burton recently visited New York City and the Museum of Modern Art in preparation of the massive exhibition "Tim Burton," displaying his art from November 2009 until April 2010, indieWIRE reports.

Discussing the upcoming show, MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry and curator Ron Magliozzi hailed Burton as another Andy Warhol because of his artwork spanning across multiple disciplines. The difference, they said, is that Burton's art is much less well-known than his films.

"So much of Warhol's [work] is well known," Magliozzi said, "So little of Tim's has been seen." Continuing on that note, a journalist asked Tim Burton what his mother would think of that comparison. Burton paused and then quipped, "She'd go, 'Who's Warhol'?"

Burton has said that he did not grow up in a "real museum culture," and "got more out of 'Beverly Hillbillies' than Eric Rohmer." Much of his early work was inspired by television he watched as a kid. But Burton was excited about this exhibition, albeit a little surprised.

Chief curator Raj Roy also commented on the Andy Warhol and Tim Burton comparison. "Knowing Tim’s work now, as I’ve had an opportunity to experience the full scope and range of his productivity, I certainly think that the comparison is valid.

"I think that just as Warhol never really had mainstream crossover success in the film world, Tim may never fully crossover in the art world; but that almost has more to do with their success and stature in their 'first fields' than with whether or not they merit acclaim in both worlds. People like to put artists in categories, especially when commerce is involved. If the MoMA show can help expose Tim Burton as a great artist in a variety of media, I’d be thrilled."

All of Burton's feature films and many of his student and non-professional shorts will be shown at the exhibition.

The staff at MoMA teased Burton and attendees with a sample from one of his rarest films, Hansel and Gretel. The short has rarely been seen since its television debut on the Disney Channel in 1983. The clip featured a Japanese Hansel and Gretel and a nasty witch with a candy cane hook nose.

"If you think I’m tasty and you want my body, come on Hansel take a bite," lures a decapitated gingerbread man, alluding to Rod Stewart's 1970's song, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." "Finish me!" screams the cookie.

"It's hard to believe that ever played on the Disney Channel," laughed Burton at the end of the clip. The excerpt was from a video, as no film prints exist. "The reason they don't have a copy is because I tried to burn them all myself," he added later. "Those things were never meant to be seen."

"Works from the cinema are essential works of art that need to be collected and preserved," MoMA’s Glenn Lowry said in an introduction to the hour-long presentation. Even after decades of presenting cinematic and filmmakers' artwork, this is MoMA's "most comprehensive monographic show," said Lowry.

Burton hasn't seen much of the artwork since he created it, and felt re-energized by the exhibition. "It's more about the process and ideas, than film and art," Burton said of the MoMA exhibition.