Burton on The Cure

Tim Burton with lead singer Robert Smith (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)

Tim Burton presented the Godlike Genius Award of the NME awards to the band The Cure on Feburary 25th.

Burton spoke very highly of the band.

"I could easily see really liking to do something, collaborate some time," he told BBC 6Music.

"I have been for so many years and they've been so inspirational to me, so it's a real honour to be here with them,” Burton said at an awards ceremony in London.

"Even though I've never worked with them, like I said, their music has always been inspirational to me so somewhere, in anything I've done.

"Always in the back of my mind it's probably rolling around there somewhere in my soul."

Lead singer Robert Smith described the award as "an honor" stating that he was "very flattered, very surprised and very pleased to get it."

Stephen Fry is the Chesire Cat

After much speculation online among fans, Stephen Fry has officially confirmed that he will be providing the voice of the Chesire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.

Fry directly said, "I'm about to play the Cheshire Cat for an animated version of Alice in Wonderland, which is probably pretty appropriate," in an interview with the BBC. (Watch the video interview here.)

A second phase of shooting is about to commence in Los Angeles, hence the "about to" comment from the multi-talent showman.

Tim Burton Valentine's Day Cards

Tired of sending the same routine to your sweethearts and friends every February 14th? Spice things up a bit with some Tim Burton themed Valentine's Day cards, featuring brand-new artwork by the visionary director.

You'll need a Facebook account to send them. But you can see the artwork below.

Here are the links:

Non-Facebook page

Send them via Facebook

Who Influenced Hathaway?

(Jack Chuck / Corbis Outline)

In a lengthy interview (click here to read the entire article), Anne Hathaway mentioned one person who inspired her acting as the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland (among numerous other topics):

“...when I was getting ready for Alice in Wonderland I watched a lot of Greta Garbo’s silent movies. She’s insane.”


She also spoke about her co-star Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton:

“If Johnny Depp has a twin brother, send him over,” laughs Anne Hathaway. “I’ll marry that guy right away.”

“Honestly, Johnny’s everything you’d want him to be, and more, while Tim is one of my favourite filmmakers. He has been since I started watching his films as a child. Working with him on a fairy tale is like being invited into this sandbox to play around.”

Sheen: Not the Chesire Cat

Michael Sheen sets the record straight in this brief video interview: he will be in Alice in Wonderland, but he will not be playing the role of the Chesire Cat.

Hathaway Talks About "Wonderland"

In an interview in Italy for Bride Wars, Anne Hathaway had more enthusiastic remarks about the making of Alice in Wonderland:

“I play the White Queen – Hathaway said - I filmed this past fall. I worked for two weeks. I had an absolute ball. I was very lucky I had a couple of weeks to create this character. The thing about Tim is that whenever you are working with an auteur like that, your limits for the character are the limits for their imagination and in the case of Tim Burton there are no limits to his imagination. It was wonderful living in a very creative word everyday, it was odd I have never done full greenscreen before: there was a room four times the size of this room, with ceilings they go three times as high and it’s all green. You feel like you live in a kind of ant colony… a very green one. That was strange… but it was just new. I loved working with Johnny Depp . And Mia, the girl who plays Alice – people are gonna love her portrayal, she is a very exciting young actress… I loved it. I just loved playing my character”.

Burton's Official Website Back

A small update, but it looks like Tim Burton's official website is finally up and running again after a few years of silence.

No new updates have been posted, but you can sign up for e-mail notifications for future official news.

"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.

Burton's "Batman" Movies on Blu-Ray in March

Tim Burton's two Batman movies -- Batman and Batman Returns -- and Joel Schumacher's two additions to the franchise will be released on Blu-ray disc in the "Batman - The Motion Picture Anthology 1989-1997" collection on March 10th, 2009.

The movies will only available on Blu-ray disc in this collection (at this point in time), selling at $129.95. The five-disc set will also come with with a digital copy of Batman, which will enable viewers to watch the 1989 blockbuster in standard edition on a PC or iPod.

The special features look to be the same as those found in the special edition DVD release of these movies from a few years ago, packed with deleted scenes, profiles, commentary tracks from the directors, documentaries, music videos, and much more. (More details to come in future press releases).

DVDTown.com also stated that "these four movies will also be available on DVD as Singles ($12.97 SRP) and 2-Disc Special Editions ($26.99 SRP) on February 10, and as a Collection ($79.92 SRP) on March 10."

More information to come in the near future!

Burton and Bonham Carter in Vogue Photoshoot

In case you didn't see them, here are pictures from the crazy and surreal Vogue UK photoshoot, "Tales of the Unexpected," by Tim Walker. These photos featuring Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter were published in the December 2008 issue of Vogue UK. There looks to be some Charlie and the Chocolate Factory influence in the perplexing and charming mix of photographs.

To see larger versions of the pictures, click on the thumbnails below. Pictures from helena-world.com and stylefrizz.com.

Pat Hingle, 1924-2009

Pat Hingle, who played the role of Commissioner Gordon in 1989's Batman died on Saturday night in his home in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. He was 84, and had been battling leukaemia for two years.

Hingle, an actor for decades, was also in Batman Returns, and the two Joel Schumacher sequels in the franchise. Hingle and Michael Gough were the only two actors to have reprised their roles in the four movies.

"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:

"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.

From Roger Rabbit to the March Hare

Ken Ralston, the visual effects supervisor on Alice in Wonderland, mentioned some technical aspects of the fantastical movie, during an interview commermorating the 20th anniversary of the multi-effects blockbuster, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.


BD: You're currently working on Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which is a very ambitious hybrid of live action and CG. Are there some interesting parallels with Roger Rabbit?

Ken Ralston: Yes, Alice reminds me in a vague way of Roger. There's the March Hare: we have a two-scale rubber version of him for actor reference, not lighting reference because there are so many virtual environments. And we had to build Toonland from scratch, which is like Underland or Wonderland. Roger changed animation.

At the end of the interview, Ralston said how his experience with Roger prepared him for the daunting tasks demanded by such films as Alice.

BD: How has your Roger experience helped you on Alice?

KR: I couldn't have been on Alice without Roger. To be a part of Roger and how it touched people is cool. These tools are great, but, as I keep saying, it's how you use them. I can at least try to pre-empt issues that come up. It's a fast shoot, and I anticipate problems so they don't blow up in your face. The variables are endless -- technical and aesthetic.

Hathaway Talks About "Alice"

Anne Hathaway recently spoke about her contribution to Alice in Wonderland. Hathaway, who will be playing the role of the White Queen, stated that she will be wearing a practical costume, without computer-generated manipulation.

"I am actually an actor not affected by CGI in it," she said on December 5th. "I believe I'm one of the very few."

While character design is being kept hidden by the studio, Hathaway hinted at what she resembles. "If I was a bunny holding a knife, that's what my character would look like," she said. "I'm sorry, that's my impression."

Hathaway also spoke highly of director Tim Burton. "I don't know what it says about me but he always made absolute sense to me. I also think because I'm such a fan of Tim Burton's, I know his aesthetic so well, I kind of just have an idea for from years of being a fan about what he might want."

Hathaway compared Burton's style with other noteworthy collaborators. "I love working with directors," she said. "I think the director is the go-to person. It should be their vision that makes it up on screen, and so I love showing up and putting myself in someone else's hands. Jonathan [Demme] and I spoke in a shorthand as well, and I've worked with other directors before. Ang [Lee] gave me two directions on Brokeback [Mountain], which was 'she's a predator' and 'more subtle.' Obviously, I'm exaggerating. There was more than that, but I had worked with directors before who say meaningful things but don't say much. So there was just kind of a continuation of that."

Alice in Wonderland is scheduled to be released on March 5th, 2010.

Rickman Talks "Alice"

Alan Rickman recently talked about his contribution to the upcoming Alice in Wonderland. Rickman also discusses his work in the new "Harry Potter" movies, which can be read in the full article here:


Alan Rickman, who plays Caterpillar in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, told a group of reporters that he has recorded his voice role and awaits the completed animation. The caterpillar will have the face of Rickman to go along with his voice.

"I don't know what it looks like," Rickman said in a group interview on Dec. 2 in Culver City, Calif., where he was promoting the film Nobel Son. "I've only done the first stage of it, which is them recording me saying these lines, quite badly. Then somewhere down the line, they'll have animated it, and I'll redo it. I'm a voice, but I have been filmed, because it's my face which will be on the end of something that will be the caterpillar."

While Caterpillar is an animated character, some actors are performing motion capture and others will appear in live action. The lines blur as even some live actors will have CGI additions. Rickman observed some of his costars when he was on stage.

"I saw Helena [Bonham Carter] and Crispin Glover yesterday," Rickman said. "They're a mixture of the two, actually, because there's Helena in a costume and in makeup, but her head is going to be made three times bigger than it actually is on top of the costume. I think they're all just blinded by the color green. It must be quite something to be surrounded by that much violent green all day long, but the costumes, one or two I saw, are incredible. I'm sure it'll be visual genius again."

Zanuck on "Ripley's"

Richard D. Zanuck recently spoke with IESB.net and finally explained the history of the Ripley's Believe It Or Not debacle:

IESB: You were supposed to be doing Ripley's Believe it or Not with Jim [Carrey] and Tim [Burton]... that it kind of fell apart on the Tim side?

Zanuck: It fell apart on the studio side, we were ready to go and very close actually, 8 or 9 weeks away from starting and it was the studio that made that decision and it actually caught us off guard, all three of us - myself, Jim and Tim - we were rocked, we spent weeks in China selecting locations with art directors, getting permissions which is very, very tough in China to shoot. And so it was a studio decision.

IESB: Do you think it will move forward? You are still attached?

Zanuck: I'm not, no, we are no longer attached. I don't know how it was resolved with Jim whether he would be attached but definitely not Tim or myself.


So it appears that Tim Burton is no longer a producer on the film, either, if he ever was.

Sheen on "Wonderland"

Michael Sheen was recently interviewed Mr. Beaks on Ain't It Cool News. At the end of the talk, the actor discussed his working on Alice in Wonderland -- and stated that he will not be playing the role of the Chesire Cat, contrary to other reports. You can read the full interview here.

Beaks: Well, you're going to be a part of one of the most richly imagined fantasy worlds of all time in Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND. As The Cheshire Cat--

Sheen: I'm not The Cheshire Cat.

Beaks: Oh. Damn IMDb. Who are you?

Sheen: I can't say. But it's not The Cheshire Cat.

Beaks: Okay.

Sheen: IMDb needs to get its facts straight. It's funny. People have come along and said, "Oh, you're playing this" And I'm like, "Really? Who's told you? The studio hasn't said."

Beaks: Well, I won't go fishing.

Sheen: Go fishing. I just won't say. The studio releases these things. It's not up to me to say. But I am in the film. And it's great to be in a film that my daughter can watch.

Beaks: Is it a traditional take?

Sheen: No, it's not traditional. I've always loved those classic children's stories like PETER PAN and ALICE IN WONDERLAND. There's a darkness at the heart that I guess you can trace back to Grimms' Fairy Tales. They're for children, but there's a harsh reality about life that seems unfit for children, and yet it's incredibly compelling. They get at something that is much harder to get at, something essential about our experience. I get very excited about those things. So to be in a classic like ALICE IN WONDERLAND... even though it's not a straight-ahead retelling, I find that really exciting.

Beaks: Actors are so good at engaging that childlike sense of play. Is there something about those works that brings out the child more easily?

Sheen: Not really. Like I said, my process is always the same. I have to find a way to be totally engaged in everything I'm doing - and that's physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. And it's only through having a childlike sense of play that you can do work - even if you're doing the most tragic of stories. I just did a film [UNTHINKABLE] in which I was tortured every day for three weeks. You have to find a sense of play in that so that it comes alive. Even if you're doing the most awful things, there has to be a joy in it. It's that sort of child aspect of yourself. Hell, I see it in my daughter. She's with her friends, they're playing, and she says, "I'm the woman who works in the village selling bread, you're that, and let's go!" It's this childlike sense of engagement where you just believe what you're doing and you don't censor yourself. That's essential for an actor. When you start thinking of acting as being "grown-up", no one will want to watch you. And anyone who does ought to be shot.

So who will Sheen be playing? Well, now some are saying that he has provided his voice to the role of the White Rabbit... But it may be safe to wait and see what the studio says...

Zanuck Talks "Alice," "Dark Shadows"

Producer Richard D. Zanuck has recently talked about Tim Burton's current film, Alice in Wonderland, as well as a possible future project for the director: a big-screen adaptation of the TV series Dark Shadows.

In one interview, Zanuck discussed Burton's decision to shoot Alice in 2D and eventually convert it to 3D in post-production. Director James Cameron, who is also involved with the new 3D movement in cinema, criticized this decision, saying "It doesn't make sense to shoot in 2-D and convert to 3D."


Zanuck: I'm making a very interesting film now, called Alice in Wonderland with Tim Burton. And we're shooting it in Culver City, and we're almost through with our part of it, which is shooting the live actors but they'll be animated. It's the first picture that will combine motion capture, with live actors and animation, all in the same frame. It'll be quite amazing.

What can you say about Tim Burton's vision for that?

Zanuck: It's everything you could imagine. You put Tim Burton in a world where his vision can run wild and you'll get the result that we're getting. I mean, when she goes into the rabbit hole. It's a dream actually. Her dream. And if it's anything that comes from her mind, and we're very faithful to the Lewis Carrol book. But it's Tim Burton being able to really crank up his wild imagination. In kind of a dark way too, as the original material was dark and scary.

James Cameron said that he didn't understand why you would shoot it in 2-D and convert to 3-D. Why not shoot it in 3-D?

Zanuck: The 3-D cameras are very clumsy quite frankly, compared to 2-D cameras. And it would have cost a lot more, we would have had more crew involved. I didn't see what Cameron said but, I was convinced, and so is Tim, seeing test after test of pictures that have been released in 3-D, shot in 2-D and you can't tell the difference. I would defy Jim Cameron to see the tests I saw and point out which was 2-D and which was 3-D.


In a second article, Zanuck talked about an upcoming project of his: Dark Shadows, which may be another Tim Burton-Johnny Depp collaboration.

In a brief video interview (click this link to view it), Zanuck states that filming may begin as soon as next summer in London. He also discusses Depp's obsession with the soap opera when he was a schoolboy.

"Batman" on Blu-Ray

DVD Review has reported that Warner Bros. is planning on releasing Batman on a two-disc Blu-Ray set for its twentieth anniversary next year. No artwork is ready yet, but the release date is tentatively scheduled for March 31st, 2009.

The article stated that the release will come as two-disc Digibook version, containing a BD-25 for the movie and the second disc for the bonus materials. No other information, such as which extras will be featured, have been announced yet.