Burton To Respect Alice's Essence
Source: SciFi Wire
Director Tim Burton, who will helm a new film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland stories, said that he will stay true to the stories' essence.
"It's just such a classic, and the imagery is so surreal," Burton said in an interview while promoting his latest film, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. "I don't know; I've never seen a version where I feel like they got it all. It's a series of weird adventures, and to try to do it where it works as a movie will be interesting."
Burton will also produce the adaptation, which will use both live action and performance-capture animation.
"The stories are like drugs for children, you know?" Burton said. "It's like, 'Whoa, man.' The imagery, they've never quite nailed making it compelling as a full story. So I think it's an interesting challenge to direct."
Filming on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is set to begin in early 2008. Burton will work from a script by Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast).
Johnny Depp dons another hat for Burton
Will play Mad Hatter in live-action/CG 'Alice in Wonderland'
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Johnny Depp will preside over the manic tea party in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" as the Mad Hatter.
Depp and Burton -- who first worked together in 1990's "Edward Scissorhands" and most recently collaborated on "Sweeney Todd" -- have formed one of the longest-running director-actor partnerships in modern Hollywood. And so when Burton committed to filming a new live-action/CG version of "Alice," Depp was touted as the most likely candidate to play the Mad Hatter -- after all, having worked with Burton on "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," he's practiced in wearing a top hat.
Disney formally announced the casting Wednesday at a studio presentation.
Mia Wasikowska, the young Australian actress who scored in HBO's "In Treatment," had previously been cast as Alice.
Matt Lucas, who stars in the sketch comedy series "Little Britain USA," which debuts on HBO Sunday, is set to play the dual roles of Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Anyone else think Burton is better off sticking to original screenplays that he's written?
His adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was horrid, hopefully this competes with Jan Svankmajer's 1988 version.
has he written many screenplays? im not overly familiar with his early work but i was under the impression he was more a story developer but didn't write the actual scripts.
Well if he's not independently written a screenplay himself, it's his own conceptions I'm talking about. Edward Scissor Hands, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
His little story book is FULL of ideas he can elaborate on, redundant in theme, but still.
Anne Hathaway books 'Alice'
Helena Bonham Carter also cast in Tim Burton's film
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Anne Hathaway, who is generating buzz for her performance in "Rachel Getting Married," has signed for a role in "Alice in Wonderland," which Tim Burton is directing for Disney.
Helena Bonham Carter also has joined the film.
The movie, which stars Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, will use a combination of live action and performance-capture technology to tell the Lewis Carroll story.
Hathaway is playing the White Queen, a benevolent monarch who is deposed and banished by her sister, the Red Queen (Carter), who has an affinity for crying out, "Off with their heads!" The White Queen needs Alice to slay a creature known as the Bandersnatch.
Richard Zanuck, Joe Roth and Jennifer and Suzanne Todd are producing.
Hathaway, repped by CAA and Management 360, next appears in the horror thriller "Passengers."
Bonham Carter, repped by Endeavor and Magnolia Entertainment, has frequently worked with Burton, her fiance; their credits include "Sweeney Todd," "Corpse Bride," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, "Big Fish" and "Planet of the Apes."
Tim Burton talks about Johnny Depp, 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Dark Knight'
Source: Los Angeles Times
I got Tim Burton on the phone the other day while he was on the set of "Alice in Wonderland" and I had to admit right off the bat that I was surprised that, with the filming just underway, he was taking the time to chat. "Yeah, well, me too," he said in his droll deadpan, and I wasn't sure whether to laugh or apologize and hang up. Then he let me off the hook. "Actually," he said in a sunnier voice, "we're just about to get going so we'll see how things go. Good, I hope."
I'm guessing things will go quite well for the 50-year-old filmmaker, who seems like the ideal auteur to bring Lewis Carroll's surreal 1865 classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" to the screen for a 21st century audience.
Young Aussie Mia Wasikowska will be Burton's Alice, while Johnny Depp is the inspired choice to play the Mad Hatter.
I told Burton that it seems as if Depp (who has other upcoming roles as an Old West hero, a pirate and a vampire) approaches his acting choices the same way a gleeful kid rummages through a trunk of dress-up clothes. The filmmaker let out a loud laugh. "It's true. Yeah we have a big dress-up clothes trunk here. We take it with us wherever we go."
More on a Depp and "Alice" in a moment, but first: This Saturday night Burton will be at the Scream 2008 Awards at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, an event that in just its third year has become a signature event in sci-fi, comics, fantasy and, yes, horror, which was is its original mandate but is now just part of its genre cocktail. Burton is getting something called the Immortal Award and the Scream people boldly say that Burton has "contributed more to the genres of fantasy, sci-fi and horror than any other filmmaker of his generation," and there's certainly an argument to made that they are completely right. "Batman," "Beetlejuice," "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood," "The Nightmare Before Christmas"...the list just goes on and on. Burton's film visuals -- a sort of cemetery cabaret ethos -- have put him on an short list (Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Woody Allen spring to mind) of filmmakers who have such distinctive on-screen traits that they become evocative brand names to even casual filmgoers.
Burton will be making quite the dramatic entrance on Saturday (which you can see yourself when the show airs on Spike TV on Oct. 21) but he has a reputation as a fairly shy fellow. I asked him if he was looking forward to the trophy night or dreading it.
"I haven't been to the event but I've seen a bit on TV and it looks quite fun, you know, which in itself is different from most of these kind of shows. It looks like a nice big Halloween party, which is always good. It seems like all the type of people that nobody liked in school all getting together for a nice big party. A prom for the kids that didn't go to prom."
I told Burton that, for the night, the venue should change its sign to read 'The Geek Theatre' and he laughed again. "That's very good! I like that. I can't use, that, I can't take credit for that." He said he had a better way to sum up the geek and Goth crowd that will attend: "We're all the people on the yearbook pages devoted to "the most likely to disappear before the semester ends and no one will notice..."
Burton was making "Batman" films when the cape genre was still viewed as a campy ghetto by serious Hollywood creators, so it must be interesting for him to watch the fringe entertainment move so squarely to the center of mainstream film and to finally do so with respectable reviews. "It is a different time now, yes. It's strange to me. At the time back in school when everybody tortured you, it didn't seem quite the same. It wasn't fashionable then. It didn't seem viable and vibrant and accepted at the time. But sometimes those things take a while."
With "Alice in Wonderland," the defining pop-culture version of the story for modern American audiences is the 1954 Disney animated adaptation with its little blond Alice in her blue dress with white pinafore. That film was met with acidic reviews by the literary world (especially in England) for its bland and blunted vision of the Carroll classic. Burton is not a fan of the film, either, and, as with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," it appears his mission is to reclaim a children's classic, resharpen its edges and remind everyone that sapping the weirdness out of a tale often renders it flat and forgettable.
"It's a funny project. The story is obviously a classic with iconic images and ideas and thoughts. But with all the movie versions, well, I've just never seen one that really had any impact to me. It's always just a series of weird events. Every character is strange and she's just kind of wandering through all of the encounters as just a sort of observer. The goal is to try to make it an engaging movie where you get some of the psychology and kind of bring a freshness but also keep the classic nature of 'Alice.' And, you know, getting to do it in 3-D fits the material quite well. So I'm excited about making it a new version but also have the elements that people expect when they think of the material."
I told Burton he's right, the Disney movie is a meandering tour of a funhouse without any gripping story arc. "Yeah, I know, it's just, 'Oh, this character's weird' and 'Oh, that character's weird.' I can't really recall a version where I felt really engaged by it. So that's the goal, just to try to give it a gravity that most film versions haven't had."
How easy was it to persuade Depp to conjure up yet another enigmatic oddball? "He loves doing that. That's never a problem. He doesn't like to be the same way twice. That's good, it always keeps it fresh and all. And he likes the material we have here and he gets it. It's nice to have people involved that are fans of the material and all."
Is there a plan yet on "Dark Shadows," based on the vampire soap opera, also set to star Depp? "Oh I don't know. Take one at time, you know? It's something I'm interested in of course. Definitely. But I'm going to start shooting this one first!"
I asked Burton if it's more than a coincidence that over the past decade his live-action films have often revisited and reimagined existing works, be they literature ("Charlie," "Alice," "Sleepy Hollow," "Big Fish"), musicals ("Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"), movies ("Planet of the Apes") or television shows ("Dark Shadows").
"Hmm. That's interesting. I don't know. I think we're all a product of our upbringing, you know, in a sense. I wasn't a very literary person. I loved movies. What you grow up with is what influences you. Whether you were a reader and there's a lot of books that you sort of want to translate to film or if it's other things that took in. I was definitely of a generation where the things I grew up watching still have impact on me. There's something about exercising that aspect of your personality or working with something that's meant a lot to you. It's just another way of processing ideas and all. So it's not really a conscious decision. I don't open up old 'TV Guides' and sit there and think, 'Hmmmm, 'Sanford & Son', that's the the movie I want to do. I watched that when I was a child...' "
Burton said he is ramping up his bravery for the Saturday night event with its hot spotlight and crowd. "I don't do it very often so it's not something I'm very used to. I'm not comfortable in big public situations, but at the same time it's a very nice thing. It's a very nice thing to do. But while it is nice, it's not the thing you think about a lot. For me, it's the people that come up to you on the streets, the people that say something to you in person, something nice and thoughtful, that's so much more interesting than connecting with a sort of staged event. you know? The types of people you grew up with, the people that enjoy certain kinds of movies, there's a connection with people like that. I certainly feel that. I mean, when someone comes up to me on the street and they have one of my drawings as a tattoo on their body, a real tattoo... I mean, that's pretty amazing. That's happened to me a few times."
Then there was a question I had to ask: What did Burton think of "The Dark Knight"? After a bit of fumbling around for words, Burton said: "I haven't seen it yet. I'm just, you know, busy. I do want to see it. I've heard it's very good. And I'm sure it is very good. Mostly everybody that I know that has seen it has said that it's very good and I take their word for it."
I thought it would be good to change the subject. There was a recent anniversary DVD of "Beetlejuice," so I asked Burton how he frames that film in his mind when he looks back on it as both a career and creative moment.
"With that movie, I just remember that back then it was the second film I did and I felt very strange making it because everyone was thinking, 'This movie really has no story and it doesn't move along like a Hollywood movie.' It just felt very funny and strange having the opportunity to make that. i just remember that feeling every day: 'Wow, they're letting me make this, which is really weird.' And it continues to this day, that dynamic. It's still weird."
Seemed like a good place to stop. I thanked for Burton for his time and mentioned that I'm hoping to visit the "Alice" set soon. "That's great, I'll see you out here! I'll be on the green screen. Just look for a load of green. Take care."
Crispin Glover joins 'Alice in Wonderland'
Actor to play Knave of Hearts in Tim Burton's adaptation
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Crispin Glover has signed on to play the Knave of Hearts in Tim Burton's adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" for Disney.
Glover joins Mia Wasikowska as Alice and a cast that includes Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter. Burton is using a combination of live action and performance-capture technology to tell the Lewis Carroll story.
The APA-repped Glover is no stranger to performance-capture technology: He worked in the medium for "Beowulf."
In "Alice," the Knave of Hearts is put on trial for stealing the Queen of Hearts' tarts and is defended by Alice.
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Is This Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter?
Source: Cinematical
An image of Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland has arrived online via something called Fangirl Magazine, and my initial feelings are that it's a fake -- something some fan doctored-up in an attempt to have a little fun with the online community. Also, since Depp's Mad Hatter will most likely be presented to us in motion capture, this image (if real) would have to either be concept art or, perhaps, a painting of the character that may or may not show up in the background of a scene. It is quite creepy, though, the way he clutches that rabbit -- and so if this is fan made, kudos to its creator. That said, I'd expect the final version to have a little more color ... but it probably won't be too far off from this.
haha.
Looks like a Dandy Salem's Lot vampire.
That's probably just Johnny Depp's Christmas card or something. No way that's TMH.
are you the keymaster?
Zanuck Defends Burton's 3-D Alice
Richard D. Zanuck, who is producing the Tim Burton-directed Alice in Wonderland film, told reporters that when the film is released in 3-D, viewers will never know it was shot in 2-D and converted later. On Dec. 2, James Cameron criticized Burton's decision to convert 2-D footage to stereoscopic 3-D in a keynote address to the 3-D Entertainment Summit.
"The 3-D cameras are very clumsy, quite frankly, compared to 2-D cameras," Zanuck said in a press conference on Dec. 3 in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting the comedy Yes Man. "It would have cost a lot more, and we would have had more crew involved. I didn't see what Cameron said, but I was convinced--and so was Tim--seeing test after test of pictures that have been released in 3-D [that were] 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."
Burton's Alice will be the first film to combine motion-capture animation with live action and stop-motion animation in 3-D. Zanuck said Burton adds his distinct visual style to a faithful representation of Lewis Carroll's classic tale.
"It's everything you would imagine," Zanuck said. "You put Tim Burton into a world where his vision can run wild, and you'll get the result that we're getting. When she goes into the rabbit hole, it's a dream, actually: her dream. It's anything that comes to her mind and then embellished, because we're very faithful to the Lewis Carroll 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."
Zanuck added that production on the live-action portion is wrapping up. "We're almost through with our part of it, which is shooting the live actors, but they'll be animated," he said. Alice in Wonderland is scheduled for release in 2010.
Disney Meeting Includes Surprise: A Glimpse of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter
By Brooks Barnes
Johnny DeppThere it was, buried in a video montage that kicked off the Walt Disney Company's annual meeting Tuesday: the first true glimpse of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's upcoming "Alice in Wonderland." Victorian top hat, crimped hair that sticks straight out, and swirl of brightly colored make-up on his eyes, cheeks and lips that resembled the blur of a pinwheel blowing in the breeze.
It was a blink-and-you-missed-it moment but most shareholders seemed to catch it, with a chorus of oohs and ahhs rising from the packed theater. The image even seemed to impress Disney board members, who sat mostly stone-faced in the fifth row during the two-hour meeting. (Except for Steve Jobs and Fred H. Langhammer, who did not attend.)
No, a spokeswoman said afterwards, a picture would not be made available. Presumably the company didn't want to rain on the parade of "Disney Twenty-Three," a pricey new quarterly magazine that was introduced at the meeting and features an interview with Mr. Burton and concept art for his tea party in its $15.95 first issue.
"It's kind of a mixture of some distorted live action and animation," the filmmaker is quoted as saying of the film, set for a March 2010 release. "I'm not sure what to relate it to. It's kind of new territory for me."
The meeting was fairly routine – shareholder efforts to reign in compensation were defeated – but the trip for board members contained a bonus. John E. Pepper Jr., Disney's chairman, said the board spent Monday on an inaugural visit to Pixar's corporate campus in Emeryville, Calif. (The board has never been to Pixar before?) Included in the tour: a 3-D screening of "Up," Pixar's upcoming release about an elderly man's balloon ride to the tropics, and early footage of "Toy Story 3," which was deemed "jaw-droppingly good" by one attendee.
First Look: Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland'
Source: Cinematical
Yesterday we reported on a Disney meeting which featured the first image of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland -- and, remember, we told you that the audience were all happy-go-lucky and whatnot with their oohhs and ahhs? At the same meeting, it was announced that in the next issue of D23 (or Disney Twenty-Three) -- Disney's pricey quarterly magazine -- there would be a first look at Wonderland alongside an interview with Burton. 24 hours later, scans of the Wonderland feature in D23 have arrived online -- including the image above of Alice (newcomer Mia Wasikowska) presumably looking down the rabbit hole. Additionally, the scans also show concept art of the famous tea party, hosted by the Mad Hatter (see below). In the article, Burton refers to the film as "kind of a mixture of some distorted live action and animation."
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awwww...ohh....god, so beautiful.
this is gonna be a great book
this is going to be Hot Topic-TASTIC.
can't wait! (seriously)
Looks awesome. I wonder if there will be any influence from the Jan Svankmajer version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5wHMgTPF-s
First look: What a weird 'Wonderland' Burton's made
By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY
You might have gone down the rabbit hole before. But never with a guide quite as attuned to the fantastic as Tim Burton.
Those who have grown curiouser and curiouser about what the offbeat reinventor of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory might conjure up in his version of Alice in Wonderland can feast their eyes on this array of concept art and publicity images, due to hang in movie theaters this week to promote the March 5, 2010, release.
"It has been Burton-ized" is how producer Richard Zanuck describes the director's vision of the Lewis Carroll classic. Many elements are familiar, from the enigmatic Caterpillar (Alan Rickman) to the fierce Jabberwock (Christopher Lee). But none has been presented in this sort of visually surreal fashion.
"We finished shooting in December after only 40 days," Zanuck says. Now the live action is being merged with CG animation and motion-capture creatures, and then transferred into 3-D.
The traditional tale has been freshened with a blast of girl power, courtesy of writer Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast). Alice, 17, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. Off she runs, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before yet doesn't remember.
Among those who welcome her back is the Mad Hatter, a part tailor-made for Johnny Depp as he collaborates with Burton for the seventh time. "This character is off his rocker," Zanuck says.
Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska, 19, best known for HBO's In Treatment, has the coveted title role. "There is something real, honest and sincere about her," Zanuck says. "She's not a typical Hollywood starlet."
There is the usual Burton-esque ghoulishness (Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen, whose favorite retort is "Off with their heads," has a moat filled with bobbing noggins), but Zanuck assures most kids can handle it. "The book itself is pretty dark," he notes. "This is for little people and people who read it when they were little 50 years ago."
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http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2009-06-21-alice-in-wonderland_N.htm
That is completely and utterly terrifying.
not really in a good way, eh?
I think in a good way. I want this movie to be scary. Burton has been so fucking corny lately. His movies used to scare the shit out of me but they were so fucking awesome. Big Adventure is fucking scary. Beetlejuice is fucking scary.
Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were fucking stupid.
I hope this is fucking scary.
I would like that, too, but I honestly don't expect it.
I'm expecting Charlie..., honestly, and these promo posters haven't deterred that feeling just yet.
You think so? I remember seeing the promo pics of Depp for Charlie and all my anticipation was deflated. It was so cutesy. This? Not so much. It just looks creepy. Especially Depp and Bonham-Carter.
Quote from: MacGuffin on June 22, 2009, 12:39:10 AM
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madonna in the role she was born to play.
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Quote from: Alexandro on June 22, 2009, 05:32:55 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on June 22, 2009, 12:39:10 AM
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madonnaElijah Wood in the role she was born to play.
Quote from: Stefen on June 22, 2009, 12:10:47 PM
I think in a good way. I want this movie to be scary. Burton has been so fucking corny lately. His movies used to scare the shit out of me but they were so fucking awesome. Big Adventure is fucking scary. Beetlejuice is fucking scary.
Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were fucking stupid.
I hope this is fucking scary.
agreed
Why Johnny Depp worried about being fired from Alice in Wonderland
Source: SciFi Wire
Johnny Depp made a dramatic switch to play the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland after starring in this summer's historical crime drama Public Enemies, in which he played real-life gangster John Dillinger.
"The Hatter was awfully fun," Depp said in a news conference on Monday in Beverly Hills, Calif. "After doing something like John Dillinger, a performance where it's somewhat restrained because of the responsibility you have to that guy and his memory, that Mad Hatter was like being fired out of a cannon. The Hatter was great fun, and, again, it's one of those things that you're just amazed you weren't fired. I truly am."
Depp plays the Mad Hatter in Burton's vision of the Lewis Carroll tale. Combining practical costumes, motion capture and 3-D computer animation, Burton is adding new levels to an aesthetic that already bears his name, "Burton-esque." USA Today published photos of the characters, including Depp's Hatter.
With orange frizzy curls, pasty porcelain makeup, a frilly black top hat and goth-y circus touches, the Hatter looks exactly as Depp said he intended. "All I've seen, I've just seen the little bits and pieces of it, but, yeah, what I ended up looking like is how I thought he was going to look, how I thought he should look, which was one of the first reasons why I'm surprised I didn't get fired," Depp said.
It's not the first time Depp expressed surprise at keeping a job: He also thought he'd be fired from the first Pirates of the Caribbean film because of studio disagreements with his portrayal of Jack Sparrow.
Alice in Wonderland is due in theaters March 5, 2010. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and newcomer Mia Wasikowska as Alice.
tweedle dee and tweedle dum look hilarious.
then there's this, which actually makes me want to see it:
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yes, that looks wonderful. my main concern is that the cgi elements won't be terribly distracting.
that is beautiful, though.
This is going to be my favorite movie of '09
I doubt it.
EXCLUSIVE: Tim Burton To Present 'Semi-Trailer' For 'Alice In Wonderland' At Comic-Con
Source: MTV
Yesterday we told you that Tim Burton will be heading to Comic-Con next week—for the first time in over thirty years!—to show off new footage of the post-apocalyptic animated film that he produced, "9." Burton is also bringing footage from his 3-D adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland"—which has never been shown in public!—and today MTV News can reveal that the footage in question will be a "semi-trailer."
A what? Allow the man himself to explain.
"[It's] a kind of a semi-trailer," Burton said. "It's where we're at at the moment. There's not a lot of footage to show."
The reason is that the technological challenges of blurring the lines between live-action, motion-capture and animation have proved to be massive. "It's a strange process we're dealing with," he explained. "We're using a mix of techniques. If you picked them apart, each technique has been done before. We're mixing them up, in a way."
"I wish we had more footage to show," Burton added. "It's a real mysterious puzzle that's frightening and exciting at the same time."
The "Alice" presentation will be part of Disney's 3-D panel on Thursday, July 23, which also includes Robert Zemeckis' "A Christmas Carol" and the sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic, "Tron." In addition to the semi-trailer Burton will be showing off, you'll surely hear the director discuss his vision for the adaptation, how he and star Johnny Depp conceived their take on the Mad Hatter, and why previous versions of "Alice" have fallen short.
Lucky for you folks not making the trip to San Diego, Burton gave us the inside word. "The thing about it is it's a series of stories," he said. "For me that's always been a problem with the movie versions of it. It's always been a girl going from one weird adventure to another, and for me it didn't have much of an impact in the versions I'd seen before. Everyone's crazy. We tried to take the 'Alice' mythology and characters and make a story out of it and be true to the spirit of what 'Alice' is about."
Burton also faulted past imaginings of the Hatter. "When you look at most interpretations, everything is pretty one-note," he said. "Everybody is crazy. With him, we are always trying to find a subtext and layer to it so it's rooted in humanity to some degree—something deeper than just being nuts."
For those who don't know, Burton's "Alice" is being planned as a sort of sequel (our term, not theirs) to the story presented in Lewis Carroll's original works. Alice, now 17, follows the White Rabbit away from a high society party, once again landing herself in Wonderland. Only this is a changed Wonderland, a place now ruled over by the evil Red Queen. And since Alice can't remember her last visit, she'll have some hurdles to overcome before she can help her old friends reclaim their world.
So how is Burton feeling about his first trip to the Con since a harrowing experience at the "Superman" panel in the late '70s? "The great thing about it is the people are passionate and that's what you want," he said. "That's why you do what you do."
Teaser Trailer here. (http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810078365/video/14698134)
EDIT: New link
I just watched it but didn't have sound. Looks creepy as fuck. YES.
Yes!!!!!!
Quote from: MacGuffin on July 22, 2009, 01:51:06 PM
Teaser Trailer here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwZI-sYxRYQ)
already gone.
=(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6irdMKNe3o
this must be it.
PSSST. (http://www.mediafire.com/?dftjzlmzymd)
*same qual as youtube which was already nearly unbearably low.
Cheeky
this looks terrible.
The worry is the heavy CGI look. Use of it has become so heavy handed in movies that it's become an uninspired version of animation. No longer is it just a compliment to difficult action sequences and fantastic scenarios. CGI is now the equivalent of plastic surgery in movies: originally meant to make things look better, but in reality just makes everything look like what it is, CGI. The hopeful part about this movie is that Tim Burton is a much better director now than in the 1980s so the movie may be efficient, but I wonder if a Where the Wild Things direction for realism would have been better. Only time will tell.
not into it.
The big problem is that it's just too damn obvious. Anybody who's ever seen a movie before is already able to picture in their mind what "Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland" is going to be, and I guarantee you they're all about 98% shot-for-shot accurate. But whatever. Hot Topic will sell a shitload of t-shirts.
Quote from: Gold Trumpet on July 22, 2009, 08:42:34 PM
CGI is now the equivalent of plastic surgery in movies: originally meant to make things look better, but in reality just makes everything look like what it is, CGI.
Very well put, although there's good cgi in some films but they need time to do it right.
Quote from: Gold Trumpet on July 22, 2009, 08:42:34 PM
I wonder if a Where the Wild Things direction for realism would have been better. Only time will tell.
It certainly would, but time is key here, studios are often in a hurry to release movies with box office potential asap, who cares if the movie would look/be better, they want the cash, they don't have time to go that route which would take years...
What I wonder is if Tim would like to go wild with Alice, maybe he doesn't care either and only wants to make films as fast as he can.
I actually find most of his stuff pretty boring to look at.
Yeah, I don't know about this either.
I'm afraid it may end up like his Wonka did.
Zodiac was the most well used CGI I can think of - the kind you don't really realize or are drawn to.
I had no idea how extensive it was until I saw that before and after bit.
I was just worried it was going to look like Wonka. Kiddie shit. This at least looks darker.
i've given up on burton. the 15 year old bubble gum goth girl thing was kinda cute in the 90s but now he's ruining masterpieces like alice in wonderland. somebody's gotta put a stop to him. i don't like to judge a book by the cover, but...
Quote from: polkablues on July 22, 2009, 08:50:22 PM
The big problem is that it's just too damn obvious. Anybody who's ever seen a movie before is already able to picture in their mind what "Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland" is going to be, and I guarantee you they're all about 98% shot-for-shot accurate.
is spot on.
Quote from: polkablues on July 22, 2009, 08:50:22 PM
The big problem is that it's just too damn obvious. Anybody who's ever seen a movie before is already able to picture in their mind what "Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland" is going to be, and I guarantee you they're all about 98% shot-for-shot accurate. But whatever. Hot Topic will sell a shitload of t-shirts.
Yeah, I felt that way when I saw Sweeney Todd, which I really didn't care for. Like Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland just seems Tim Burton-y to begin with and so it's redundant to even have him do it.
And how many fucking hats can Johnny Depp wear? Literally, not figuratively. I'm kind of tired of him.
Trailer's here, too.
http://www.kalebnation.com/blog/2009/07/22/tim-burtons-alice-in-wonderland-trailer/
At least Kaleb's excited about it.
I don't mind the general Burton assumptions. I may be the only person here who thought Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had a worthwhile existence, but I think he's a lot better now than in the 1980s. Those early films were by the same Tim Burton, but they were sluggish technically and storywise. Edward Scissorshands makes me cringe for its obvious attempt at drama. The film has little appeal elsewhere besides its pretensions so it's overall a blah result for me, but now Burton packs a similar story with a lot of decent entertainment around the lukewarm themes. He can do more with a story now and I don't care that Tim Burton will always be just who he is so I hope for the best with this movie.
depp really looks like madonna, it's weird.
Really, a film like this depends on the screenplay. Every other varible is completely predictable at this point. Burton is in burtonland, and Depp is in deppland and everyone else is just playing as guests in their party. I thought the look in Charlie was interesting, mainly because it was so colorful, but this looks like a rehash of that, and Burton colorful is not as interesint as burton dark. If the screenplay is witty enough, funny or well constructed enough, the film will be ok.
Burton needs to do something radically different. He really peaked with Ed Wood and after that it's been mostly one disapointment after the other. I enjoyed Charlie and Corpse Bride, but they are nothing compared to his reshaping of things in the 90's. A truly dark true story with not discernible Burtonisms in the scrypt would probably take something awesome from him again, but he keeps working in children's fare.
march?
it'll suck
i guess the Tim burton look just isn't as exciting as it used to be, it got old on me. i worry the wes anderson experience will suffer from that 98% factor as well, because i still love his vibe but i could see the same thing happening. it's an oversaturation thing, and tired. it's not my problem that Tim burton is being himself and refuses to change. it's more that Tim burton makes the same movie with the same look each time, and the source material fits itself around the Tim burton art style. most movies should be vice versa from that, more like tim burton adapting to the source material.
most of my normal friends are starting to talk about it, and all them normal simple folks are excited as shit about this film.
Tim Burton's descent into the rabbit hole
The director's clip of 'Alice in Wonderland' is cheered at Comic-Con, but he's still as nervous as a Mad Hatter.
By Gina McIntyre; Los Angeles Times
When Tim Burton, one of Hollywood's most distinctive directors, came to Comic-Con International last week with never-before-seen footage from his upcoming adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland," the audience at the San Diego Convention Center went wild at the sight of Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and other beloved characters from Lewis Carroll's surreal storybook classic.
The rapturous applause, however, did little to assuage Burton's anxiety. "If you saw how much was missing," Burton later said with a laugh, "you'd be nervous too."
Opening day for "Alice" is still seven months away, but Burton, now back in the editing bay in London, might as well have an impatient white rabbit following him around with a ticking pocket watch tucked in his waistcoat. The movie is being made using a combination of live-action, animation and other techniques, creating a logjam of visual effects tasks that will likely keep Burton from finishing until the very last moment.
Penned by screenwriter Linda Woolverton, Burton's "Alice" sees the curious blond (19-year-old Australian actress Mia Wasikowska) tumble down the rabbit hole into a world populated by an array of human and animal oddities. One of them, the outrageous-looking, orange-haired Mad Hatter, played by Burton's longtime collaborator Johnny Depp, accompanies her on much of her journey across the strange land. (Depp turned in a surprise guest appearance at Comic-Con, which only stoked the level of excitement surrounding the film.)
In assembling a story that borrows from all of Carroll's "Alice" material -- he said the script captured "a lot of the vibe" from the famous nonsensical poem "Jabberwocky," which contains wholly fabricated words and a loosely constructed narrative at best -- he wanted the movie to be more than simply a document of a girl wandering through a surreal landscape; all of the characters needed to have an internal life and to be more richly drawn than in earlier big-screen efforts. Alice, for example, evolves from an astonished naif to empowered action heroine, sporting her very own suit of armor, over the course of the film.
"Every other version I've ever seen, I've never really connected to because it's always just a series of weird events," Burton said. "She's passively wandering through, meeting this weird character, that weird character. It's fine in the books, but the movies always felt like there wasn't anything underneath them. That's what we tried to do. Instead of the Hatter just being weird, [we wanted to] get some kind of character underneath him. That's the goal, is to give the 'Alice' material a little more weight to it."
Burton said his decision to combine live action and animation made the project the most technologically complex he's worked yet. Before filming began, he tried to ensure that the actors would be comfortable reacting to characters and locations that are being rendered only now, during post-production in London, where the director resides with his partner and "Alice" star Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the villainous Red Queen.
"This is the first time I've dealt with a lot of green screen, and it drives you nuts," Burton said. "On a live-action [film], you've got actors, you've got sets and that's what I like. This is almost the opposite of that. After a while you start to get kind of jittery and crazy."
He was particularly grateful for the elaborately detailed sets and costumes that did exist as they helped ground the cast and crew. "We had some reality to hang onto there a little bit. It helps, believe me," he said.
It was Burton's experiences fighting to make artistically risky studio films like "Alice" and 2007's gothic musical "Sweeney Todd" that prompted him to get involved in "9," which he also promoted at Comic-Con. The unusual and inventive film, which arrives in theaters Sept. 9, follows a band of tiny, hand-sewn-looking sock-puppet characters as they struggle to survive in a harrowing, post-apocalyptic landscape. The movie is based on director Shane Acker's Student Academy Award-winning short, and Burton said that when he first saw Acker's work, he was struck by the fact that the director's sensibility was so similar to his own.
He and fellow producer Timur Bekmambetov -- the Russian director who helmed last year's Angelina Jolie action movie "Wanted" -- became sounding boards for Acker; both directors share an agent, Mike Simpson, who introduced them to the 38-year-old filmmaker.
Acker was born in Illinois and attended UCLA, first earning a master's degree in architecture. He later completed another master's in animation (where he made his the original 11-minute version of "9" as his thesis project), before heading to New Zealand to work as an animator on "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
Burton said he was willing to take on any battles that arose over the creative direction of "9," but none materialized. "The kinds of fights I've had in the past on things didn't really manifest themselves on this," he said.
Burton is planning to next direct a "Dark Shadows" movie that will star Depp as lovelorn vampire Barnabas Collins, the tortured soul who originally appeared in the 1960s soap opera of the same name. Before that, though, he'll finish shepherding "Alice" through her many adventures in Wonderland. And time is short.
"Any film you do, you just kind of finish and you wish you could have spent a little bit more time on this or that," he said. "I don't yet know how much at the end of this I will have felt that I've compromised or not. This one could be pretty rough that way."
New Trailer here. (http://www.spike.com/video/alice-in-wonderland/3278138)
Quote from: pete on July 27, 2009, 09:48:42 PM
most of my normal friends are starting to talk about it, and all them normal simple folks are excited as shit about this film.
That happened around here too last july when the pics and trailer started to pop up. Everyone started to shoot their goo about this film, talking about "the next masterpiece" from the "genius" Tim Burton. He has a lot of street cred basically for the same reasons people in xixax gives him shit: consistency. He's been doing the same thing forever to the extent that he is now a recognizable brand. He gives people what they expect from him and they love him for it. Of course if he were challenging expectations he would probably be out of work by now. Most people, Burton and Depp fans, don't even know Ed Wood exists. But everyone saw Sweeney Todd, and you can feel people really wanting to like that one despite being practically an impossible film to like on any level.
Quote from: Alexandro on October 29, 2009, 08:27:50 AMBut everyone saw Sweeney Todd, and you can feel people really wanting to like that one despite being practically an impossible film to like on any level.
don't use Sweeney Todd as an example of bad Burton. there are so many better examples. Sweeney is fantastic.
When I told my non-film friends about how much I liked Where The Wild Things Are, they responded with "You only liked it because it was a Tim Burton movie." There wasn't enough time to explain how much was wrong with that statement so just gave em one of these:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwatchstuff.com%2F2008%2F07%2F14%2Flarry-david-cye.jpg&hash=8fee834f0d3557d9d396888109679081b0884925)
and slowly walked away.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F22.media.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_ksym73ZAMU1qappjoo1_500.jpg&hash=96117e9764b7708c6d89bb08185c953ac71dbb69)
Quote from: picolas on October 30, 2009, 03:30:33 AM
Quote from: Alexandro on October 29, 2009, 08:27:50 AMBut everyone saw Sweeney Todd, and you can feel people really wanting to like that one despite being practically an impossible film to like on any level.
don't use Sweeney Todd as an example of bad Burton. there are so many better examples. Sweeney is fantastic.
Well, think I need to explain this. For us moviefreaks there was a lot to like in Sweeney Todd. Speaking only for myself I enjoyed a lot of things, even though the music was pure torture to my ears. However, normal people went to see it in mass and most opinions I've heard are more than negative. People really wanted to like it but were turned off by it. No one is seeing it again ever. This is what I've heard around. The consensus on Charlie and Corpse Bride is way more positive than what I've sensed for Todd. It is of course just something I'm saying without statistic proof, but it's the vibe I get.
In any case, to me personally, watching Charlie and Corpse Bride (two films that were desecrated in xixax) was infinitely more enjoyable than sitting through Sweeney Todd.
it's hard to defend a movie on the grounds of whether or not most other people like it. all i can say is i've watched it four times, i own the dvd, and the soundtrack is on my ipod. i don't know what everybody else thinks but i'm pretty sure it was well-reviewed.
I like "Bret in Hollywood" or "Bret in Hollywoodland"
just a suggestion.
New Trailer here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/aliceinwonderland/)
naw i take it back, i just read my last post after seeing mac's post
should be
"A Rat in Hollywoodland"
Johnny Depp explains how he picked his poison with the Mad Hatter
Source: Los Angeles Times
We have big plans here at the Hero Complex for covering "Alice in Wonderland" and today we have an early exclusive as Rachel Abramowitz talks with star Johnny Depp about the very specific madness of the Mad Hatter.
When he takes on a role, Johnny Depp often paints a watercolor portrait of the still-forming character to help find his face and personality. After putting the finishing touches on his painting for "Alice in Wonderland," Depp looked down at the Mad Hatter staring back at him from the canvas and giggled.
"I was thinking," the actor said, "'Oh my God, this one will get me fired!'"
It's hard to imagine any pink slips in the future for Depp, who arguably reigns as the biggest movie star in the world at the moment. But his version of the Mad Hatter for Tim Burton's interpretation of "Alice in Wonderland" has stirred both interest and, early on, some skepticism from literary purists who say it's a far cry from the character as described in Lewis Carroll's 19th century writings or from images in the collective public imagination shaped by years of stage productions and the 1951 Walt Disney animated classic.
Depp's extreme vision for the character -- who arrives in theaters on March 5 -- creates yet another vivid screen persona for the Hollywood chameleon who has played Sweeney Todd, Willie Wonka, Edward Scissorhands and a certain scoundrel named Jack Sparrow. The 46-year-old actor said his Hatter's springy mass of tangerine hair became a particularly important detail because of one of the suspected origins of the term "Mad as a hatter."
In the 18th and 19th centuries, mercury was used in the manufacture of felt, and when used in hats it could be absorbed through the skin and affect the mind through maladies such as Korsakoff's syndrome. Hatters and mill workers often fell victim to mercury poisoning which, in Carroll's time, had an orange tint -- hence Depp's interest in adding brushstrokes of that particular watercolor to his portrait.
"I think [the Mad Hatter] was poisoned -- very, very poisoned," Depp said. "And I think it just took affect in all his nerves. It was coming out through his hair and through his fingernails, through his eyes"
Depp's research also took him down some unexpected literary rabbit holes with the writings of Carroll.
"There's a great line in the book where the Hatter says, 'I'm investigating things that begin with the letter 'M,'" Depp said. "So I started kind of doing a little researching, reading a bunch. And you start thinking about the letter 'M' and Hatters and the term 'Mad as a hatter' and 'mercury.'"
Depp was also intrigued by one of the Mad Hatter's nonsense questions during a dizzying tea party: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" "I think he is referencing Edgar Allan Poe," Depp said, referring to the haunted author of "The Raven," which was published in 1845, two decades before Carroll's surreal tale reached the public. Depp let the two ideas germinate in his head and it informed his own Hatter concoction.
Burton, whose background in art and animation is well known, also draws his characters, and when he and his star compared their handiwork they grinned like the Cheshire Cat. "They were," Depp says, "very close."
'Alice' might get shorter U.S. theatrical run
Disney has asked theater owners about smaller window
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Bob Iger wasn't bluffing.
The Disney CEO has been telling Wall Street for months that he's going to have studio executives begin fiddling with traditional movie release windows, and it appears the time has arrived for the first grand experiment.
A day after the revelation that U.K. exhibitors are being asked to accept a tightened theatrical window on Disney's spring tentpole "Alice in Wonderland," The Hollywood Reporter has learned that U.S. theater owners have been similarly approached.
Normally, movies play in first-run theaters for up to 16 weeks. Disney is talking about a theatrical run of just under 13 weeks on "Alice," a 3D motion-capture/live-action fantasy helmed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp.
The studio would benefit by truncating the film's theatrical run as the title is a near sure shot for big success in home entertainment with its family-friendly subject matter and well-known cast. So the quicker Disney can get it into DVD and Blu-ray Disc release the better.
It's likely that Disney also will accelerate the availability of "Alice" on VOD, which home-entertainment execs have come to view as less of a threat to DVD/Blu-ray income and more as a complementary revenue stream.
Exhibitors have made it clear that they need a compensating upside from the moves. Less clear is how the Burbank studio will provide such a benefit, but film-rental terms are always subject to some negotiating.
These days, most releases come with "aggregate" terms. In such cases, distributors and exhibitors agree to split boxoffice by a set percentage of a film's entire run, with up to 55% going into studio coffers on pricey tentpole releases.
But on some pics, studios still pencil in a growing split for exhibs during the course of a run. So it's possible that Disney will use such an approach to offer a sweeter-than-usual early taste of the receipts for exhibs agreeing to book the film for a truncated theatrical run.
In any event, exhibs are getting assurances that Disney will proceed cautiously in broadening its experiment to future movie releases.
Disney's sales job in the U.K., where it sought to lop up to five weeks from its regional run, was a bit easier. European theater owners know the theatrical market will be squeezed greatly when the soccer World Cup kicks off in June.
Meanwhile, another benefit of the shorter theatrical run for "Alice" -- set to unspool worldwide March 5 in a combination of 2D and 3D venues -- would be its freeing up 3D screens for other big extra-dimensional releases including Warner Bros.' April 2 opener "Clash of the Titans."
For Iger, who's been trying to reinvigorate the Disney film studio through a major executive shuffle, changes to traditional release windows simply are a matter of maximizing studio profits. As recently as Tuesday, the Disney topper mused during an earnings conference that window experiments might be a way of improving the studio's bottom line.
I've seen the trailer several times on TV.
I'll probably skip this one.
just last night i was laying in bed wondering if bigideas would be into this or not.
Quote from: Pozer on February 10, 2010, 11:58:14 AM
just last night i was laying in bed wondering if bigideas would be into this or not.
and participating in self gratification.
AMC digging in over Disney's plans for 'Alice in Wonderland'
Source: Los Angeles Times
The protest by movie theater companies against Disney's plans to accelerate the DVD release for its upcoming 3-D film "Alice in Wonderland" is rippling across the Atlantic.
Disney wants to shorten the window between the movie's theatrical debut and its DVD release to 12 weeks from 17 weeks, in hopes of boosting DVD sales. But exhibitors fear that this would cut into their business.
Two British theater companies and a majority of cinema operators in the Netherlands have already vowed to boycott "Alice" when it debuts March 5. Now, a major U.S. theater chain may follow the lead of Vue Entertainment and Odeon Cinemas in not carrying the movie.
AMC Entertainment, the nation's second-largest theater operator, is digging in its heels over the issue. Less than two weeks remain before "Alice's" release, but the Kansas City, Mo.-based company, which has more than 4,500 screens worldwide, has not yet agreed to screen it, according to three people familiar with the matter.
If AMC refuses to show "Alice," that would be a major blow to the film's box-office returns. However, the two sides are expected to reach a compromise that would avert such an outcome -- even if negotiations go down to the wire, sources said.
Representatives of AMC and Disney declined to comment.
Britain's Cineworld Cinemas announced this week that it would carry "Alice."
This sucked.
Quote from: polkablues on July 22, 2009, 08:50:22 PM
Anybody who's ever seen a movie before is already able to picture in their mind what "Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland" is going to be...
No we didn't. How could we? Was there any way to anticipate this goddamn mess of a movie? I'm simply stunned at how bad it was. How boring. My god!! They kill the spirit of Carroll by actually turning up a story that makes sense instead of the original madness. No humor, Alice turned into a "girlpower" commercial, characters showing up and going away without doing anything memorable. Just sucked big time.
I quite enjoyed this, aside from the WTF breakdance scene.
I agree with everything Alexandro said. Burton's whole take on the material was an abrogation of everything that was ever good about Alice in Wonderland. He robbed it of its uniqueness and replaced it with an increasingly tired and predictable goth aesthetic. There was no wonder to it, and while the main character was obsessed with the idea that it was all a dream, the story had none of the dream logic that set apart the books and the original Disney adaptation. It was simply a point A to point B story with obnoxious characterizations and a goddamn battle scene at the climax. And the CGI was horrible. Nothing looked finished, nothing moved right... there were shots that wouldn't have looked out of place in a Syfy original movie.
It was still better than "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," though.
tim burton is the dave matthews of film. his specialty, whether or not he's conscious of this, is that he leaves a healthy dosage of artifice in every execution so the viewers feel sophisticated in picking out these elements of filmmaking that are usually invisible. but his stories have always been so generic and he has never delivered on the promise of wildness in his art direction because in terms of storytelling, pacing, camerawork, and editing - he's quite generic and lacks the manic energy that other flashy filmmakers have; filmmakers such as The Coens or Tarantino or Jean-Pierre Jeunet - guys who also make their marks by promising to be wild and artificial, but these guys, say what you will about their works, write much more maniacal scripts to compliment the texture/tone of their films.
in short - burton's films only look idiosyncratic but never are truly idiosyncratic - except Ed Wood.
And, just like Matthews music, Alice in Wonderland is wildly successful and I still haven't met a single person who love it without apology. Or even love it apologetically, for that matter.
I like to remain, in the words of the AV Club "cautiously optimistic" about practically any film - but I can't even bring myself to see this.
What's even worse is that it clogged up the screen at the Castro Theater for a full fucking month that could have been devoted to interesting, exciting programming that, you know, I couldn't see at every fucking AMC.
castro is a sad case of a theater brought to its knees by a shitty film crowd. San Fran has like a dozen indie theaters, but they have not found a way to build a relevant, exciting crowd, nevermind exciting programming. everything is a scene in this city, and moviegoing becomes especially shallow when it has to compete with great comedy, good bands, AND great weather. I'm sick of revival theaters playing second run indies or The Big Lebowski. Seriously. The curators seem to have no connection no balls and most of all, no cash.
other than that, I saw alice amidst geeks ('cause it's wondercon) and families. you know, an easy crowd. but very few people laughed at the jokes and it seemed like most of them just didn't care.
who thought it was a good idea to devote much screentime to dragon slaying or popping and locking (doubled by the venerable dave elsewhere)?
AND, screenwriters should not write stories that involve "prophecy" or "destiny" anymore - those are just cheap ways of combining arbitrary events. "you're gonna fight a dragon - it says so here in this here scroll". Fuck that movie for making me curse on the Lord's Ressurection Sunday.
his early films were pretty bizarre storywise and visually, especially his use of editing between real life and models/stop motion animation.
after he started using computers for his effects something was lost for me......or maybe it was around the time Bonham Carter became his muse........she creeps me out.
yes. his 80's to mid 90's period is flawless to me.
he really shaped what could be done in a comic book movie with batman and then topped it with batman returns, which even after the dark knight remains the darkest any filmmaker has taken that character and story. the catwoman character was inspired. incidentally he has always been very good at getting actors to shine in weird roles. scissorhands and beetlejuice were one of a kind films, with a distinctive sense of humor and heart. the nightmare before christmas is pure burton, original, impossible to conceive without him. then ed wood came, which pretty much everyone recognizes as his best film. because it is.
personally, I enjoyed Mars Attacks a lot, and feel he made a great job with Sleepy Hollow. His first real misstep to me was Planet of the Apes. After that it's been a weird ride. Corpse Bride and Charlie were ok, but something's been missing. What's depressing in Alice is how lifeless is, and of course, the idea of changing it to the extent of becoming a lord in the rings wanna be. He is clearly showing signs of fatigue.
you didn't notice how lifeless his two batmans were?
beetlejuice seemed funny. maybe he's much better at comedy than a thriller or an adventure.
no, I don't see them as lifeless at all. batman returns specially is pretty ballsy. it was a risky proposition in 92 and it would still be risky today. i think in those days he was still trying to fight the power, so to speak. he was doing things his way when his way was still not an accepted brand. nightmare before christmas was left to die in cinemas, but years later it became a cult hit. it could be said the same about burton himself. now everything is too easy.
Quote from: pete on April 05, 2010, 01:07:33 PM
you didn't notice how lifeless his two batmans were?
beetlejuice seemed funny. maybe he's much better at comedy than a thriller or an adventure.
I got that 8 disc Batman DVD set for Christmas. Burton Batman through Schumacher Batman's.
So far I have gone through all of the first one, commentaries, everything.
That first film left a big impression on me as a kid - I can still remember which theater inside the overall theater I saw the movie in and how weird that opening credit sequence was.
I still really enjoy it now.
In what way do they seem lifeless to you?
I have never cared as much for Returns and even at the time I felt the Schumacher's were insuperior, escpecially Batman and Robin, and that was before I looked at films in any artistic way.
Burton used to be good. Pee Wee and Beetlejuice are both awesome.
He's just creatively bankrupt. His idea well has dried out. He hasn't had an original idea since the mid-90's. Everything is someone elses idea.
He's a businessman now.
I think CGI is hindering the effect of his production talent because it's meshing with too many other films, but other than that, I just think he needs better scripts. He's always been clueless about how to develop a story if the script needs work. Technically, his filmmaking-style is a lot more developed today than it was in the late 80s or early 90s, but he's entrusted himself to a lot of inadequate scripts. I also think many of us saw his films when we were younger and gave our hearts over to the films before our heads. His early efforts aren't that good.
I believe I've said this elsewhere on the board, but Batman was the first film that disappointed me. And I was like 9 or 10 when I saw it on TV. I remember how it promised all these cool things, but delivered none - a car that suited up just to run away from pedestrians and a plane that was shot down by a pistol. I remember thinking the whole thing was tedious - the struggle at the end was so theatrical and phony and I didn't really care if the Joker died or not. And then I thought maybe it was just because I was young so I'd try to re-watch it every couple of years, and over time I became even more bored. The film also just didn't have very good substance - it looked like it might be dark and exciting, but even as a kid I just thought those things - the woman with the distorted face, the father that got electrocuted to death, the crazy knives dude - were half-assed.
yes. i also think a good script would help, but the fuck ups in alice in wonderland are beyond the screenplay. it's not a particularly exciting directorial job either. it's kind of boring actually, everyone seems bored. when i saw charlie it was obvious burton and depp at least were having a lot of fun with it, enjoying the benefit of their superstardom. this time it wasn't like that.
I didn't remember beetlejuice or scissorhands to be that good actually, but rewatching them recently reminded me of the charm and originality of vision he displayed early on. and this were his stories too.
I do have a strong memory of the first batman, because it was a huge movie, did tons of money, and it was an actual event as far as I can remember. I went to a full theatre with people sitting on the floor that exploded in applause when the batship posed itself in front of the moon.
Anyway, the guy needs to DO SOMETHING, and that something is NOT the addams family.
I wish he would save Keaton from whatever exile he is in - I love him in Beetlejuice and Batman.
Here's my fantasy for the third chris nolan batman:
He directly adapts The Dark Knight Returns and has Jon Hamm play the aging Bruce Wayne/Batman and Michael Keaton play the Joker.
This wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Definitely different than any other adaptation that I've come across and Depp makes this worth watching. There are so many stunning visuals in this movie that this version couldn't have been done by anyone except burton. The opening disney logo actually creeped me out. I might be in the minority again since I haven't read this partcular thread in a while but I enjoyed this quite a bit.
I thought it was an eyesore, and the art direction was a fucking joke. Ugly and poorly written. Oh yeah, poorly acted, too. There was no inspiration behind this, just as there was no need for the attempt.
futterwacken?? why should that word or dance have been invented?
I really think it's high time Burton retires. He looks old, exhausted, spent of every last creative energy. And now he wants to remake Frankenweenie?? But why? Why can't he just quit us?