1982
Vincent
Producer: Tim Burton
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Tim Burton
Cinematography (black and white): Victor Abdalov
Cast: Vincent Price (narrator)
5 mins. 16 mm
Seven-year-old Vincent Malloy fantasizes about being Vincent Price.
Hansel and Gretel
Executive producer: Julie Hickson
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Julie Hickson
Cast: Michael Yama, Jim Ishida
45 mins. 16 mm
A variation on the Grimms’ fairy tale with an all-Asian cast.
Frankenweenie
Production company: Walt Disney
Producer: Julie Hickson
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Lenny Ripp, based on an original idea by Tim Burton
Cinematography (black and white): Thomas Ackerman
Editor: Ernest Milano, A.C.E.
Music: Michael Convertino, David Newman
Art director: John B. Mansbridge
Cast includes: Shelley Duvall (Susan Frankenstein), Daniel Stern (Ben Frankenstein), Barrett Oliver (Victor Frankenstein), Joseph Maher (Mr Chambers), Roz Braverman (Mrs Epstein), Paul Bartel (Mr Walsh), Domino (Ann Chambers), Jason Hervey (Frank Dale), Paul C. Scott (Mike Anderson), Helen Bell (Mrs Curtis)
25 mins. 35 mm
Victor Frankenstein’s dog, Sparky, chases a ball into the road and is hit by a car and killed. When Victor’s teacher, Mr Walsh, shows his science class how electricity can be used to give life to a dead frog, Victor digs up his beloved pet from the local pet cemetery. He reanimates Sparky and keeps him out of sight in the attic. But Sparky sneaks out and terrifies the neighbours. When Mr Frankenstein discovers his son’s secret he decides to invite everyone from the neighbourhood to the house to reintroduce them to Sparky. The evening descends into chaos and Sparky runs off to the local miniature golf course. Victor follows him there, along with an angry mob of neighbours. Sparky is killed saving Victor from a flaming windmill. The neighbours rally round and bring him back to life using jump leads attached to their car batteries. Revived, he finds romance with a poodle.
1984
Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp
Production company: A Platypus Production in association with Lion’s
Gate Films
Executive producer: Shelley Duvall
Producers: Bridget Terry, Fredric S. Fuchs
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Mark Curtiss, Rod Ash
Music: David Newman, Michael Convertino
Production designer: Michael Erler
Cast: Valerie Bertinelli (Princess Sabrina), Robert Carradine (Aladdin), James Earl Jones (Genie of the Lamp and Genie of the Ring), Leonard Nimoy (Evil Magician), Ray Sharkey (Grand Vizier), Rae Allen (Aladdin’s Mother), Joseph Maher (Sultan), Jay Abramowitz (Habibe), Martha Velez (Lady Servant), Bonnie Jefferies, Sandy Lenz and Marcia Gobel (the Three Green Women), John Salazar (Servant)
47 mins. Colour video
Version of the classic tale shot for Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre TV series.
1985
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
Production company: Aspen Film Society-Shapiro/Warner Bros
Executive producer: William E. McEuen
Producers: Robert Shapiro, Richard Gilbert Abramson
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens, Michael Varhol
Cinematography (colour): Victor J. Kemper, A.S.C.
Editor: Billy Webber
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: David L. Snyder
Cast includes: Pee-Wee Herman (Himself), Elizabeth Daily (Dottie), Mark Holton (Francis), Diane Salinger (Simone), Judd Omen (Mickey), Irving Hellman (Neighbour), Monte Landis (Mario), Damon Martin (Chip), David Glasser, Gregory Brown, Mark Everett (BMX Kids), Daryl Roach (Chuck), Bill Cable, Peter Looney (Policemen), James Brolin (PW), Morgan Fairchild (Dottie)
90 mins. 35 mm
One day after breakfast, Pee-Wee Herman takes out his beloved red and white bicycle to admire it. Later, rich kid Francis offers to buy it from Pee-Wee, who refuses and rides into town to visit the local joke shop and pick up a new horn for his bike. When he returns to where he padlocked it, he discovers the bike has been stolen. The police can’t help, so he consults a fortune-teller who (wrongly) informs him that his bike is in the basement at the Alamo.
Setting off to find his bike he hitches a ride with, firstly, an escaped convict and then Large Marge, a ghostly trucker, who died a year previously. She drops him off at a roadside diner where he is befriended by Simone, a waitress who dreams of visiting Paris. Pee-Wee encourages her to go and after being chased by Simone’s jealous boyfriend eventually he makes it to the Alamo where he is horrified to discover there is no basement. Later, after riding a wild bull and wooing over a bar-room full of bikers with a dazzling version of ‘Tequila’, Pee-Wee has an accident and winds up in hospital where he sees his bike on TV being presented to a child-star for use in a forthcoming film. Rushing to the studio, Pee-Wee sneaks on to the lot, steals back his bicycle and is chased through various soundstages.
Having escaped, he spies a pet shop on fire and stops to rescue the animals from the blaze. Passing out in front of the store he is arrested.
However, a studio executive is convinced Pee-Wee’s story will make a great movie and turns his tale into a James Bond-style adventure with Pee-Wee cameoing as a hotel bell-hop. Later, everyone who Pee-Wee encountered during his quest turns up for the film’s world premiere at the local drive-in.
The Jar
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Michael McDowell from Ray Bradbury’s original teleplay
Music: Danny Elfman
Cast: Griffin Dunne, Paul Bartel
23 mins.
Episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series.
Family Dog
Cartoon TV series produced by Amblin for which Burton acted as executive producer as well as design consultant.
1988
Beetlejuice
Production company: The Geffen Company
Producers: Michael Bender, Larry Wilson, Richard Hashimoto
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren, story by Michael
McDowell, Larry Wilson
Cinematography (colour): Thomas Ackerman
Editor: Jane Kurson
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: Bo Welch
Cast includes: Alec Baldwin (Adam Maitland), Geena Davis (Barbara Maitland), Jeffrey Jones (Charles Deetz), Catherine O’Hara (Delia Deetz), Winona Ryder (Lydia Deetz), Sylvia Sidney (Juno), Robert Goulet (Maxie Dean), Glenn Shadix (Otho), Dick Cavett (Bernard), Annie McEnroe (Jane), Michael Keaton (Betelgeuse), Patricia Martinez (Receptionist), Simmy Bow (Janitor), Maurice Page (Ernie)
92 mins. 35 mm
Happily-married couple Adam and Barbara Maitland decide to spend their holiday decorating their idyllic New England home. Returning from a trip to town, Adam swerves to avoid hitting a dog. Their car dives off of a bridge into the river and they are killed. The couple arrive back at their house where a book entitled Handbook for the Recently Deceased reveals to them their predicament. Although they are now ghosts, they can remain in their home; if they try to leave, they end up in another dimension, a desert world populated by enormous sandworms.
Their peace is soon shattered, however, when their house is sold and the new residents arrive from New York. The Deetzes – henpecked Charles, would-be sculptor Delia and their morose daughter Lydia – under the guidance of obese interior designer, Otho, begin transforming the house into a horrific piece of modern art. The Maitlands seek help from their afterlife case worker, Juno, who informs them that they must remain in the house for 125 years, and if they want the Deetzes out, it is up to them to scare them away. But the Maitlands’ attempt to haunt their home proves ineffectual. Although the Maitlands remain invisible to Charles and Delia, their daughter Lydia can see Adam and Barbara and becomes their friend.
Against the advice of Juno, the Maitlands contact the miscreant Betelgeuse, a freelance bio-exorcist, to scare away the Deetzes, but Betelgeuse is more interested in marrying Lydia and re-entering the real world. It takes the combined efforts of the Maitlands and Lydia to defeat Betelgeuse and banish him to the afterlife. The Deetzes and the Maitlands decide to live together in harmony.
1989
Batman
Production company: Warner Bros
Executive producers: Benjamin Melniker, Michael Uslan
Producers: Jon Peters, Peter Guber, Chris Kenney
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Sam Hamm, Warren Skaaren, story by Sam Hamm, based on
Batman characters created by Bob Kane
Cinematography (colour): Roger Pratt
Editor: Ray Lovejoy
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: Anton Furst
Cast: Jack Nicholson (Joker/Jack Napier), Michael Keaton (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Kim Basinger (Vicky Vale), Robert Wuhl (Alexander Knox), Pat Hingle (Commissioner Gordon), Billy Dee Williams (Harvey Dent), Michael Gough (Alfred), Jack Palance (Carl Grissom), Jerry Hall (Alicia)
126 mins. 35 mm
Gotham City is in the grip of mob boss Carl Grissom. Reporter Alexander Knox and photo-journalist Vicky Vale begin investigating the truth behind the rumours of a shadowy vigilante figure dressed as a bat, who has been terrifying criminals throughout the city.
Vale and Knox attend a benefit at the mansion of millionaire Bruce Wayne, who is taken by Vicky’s charms. That same night, Grissom’s second in command, Jack Napier, attempts to raid a chemical factory. When the police arrive, Napier realizes he’s been set-up by his boss, angered by his affair with Grissom’s girl. In the midst of the shoot-out, Batman arrives and Napier is tossed into a vat of toxic waste, later emerging hideously deformed as The Joker – his mouth twisted into a permanent grin, his face deathly white, his hair green.
After killing Grissom, The Joker takes over his empire and holds the city at his mercy by chemically altering everyday hygiene products so that those using a certain combination of products die. Batman, who is revealed to be Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego, attempts to track down The Joker, who has become interested in Vicky Vale. The Joker, it turns out, killed Bruce’s parents when he was a boy. The Joker holds a parade through Gotham, luring its citizens on to its streets by dispensing money, intending to kill them with a lethal gas. Batman foils his plan, but The Joker kidnaps Vicky and takes her to the top of Gotham Cathedral. After a fight with Batman, The Joker is thrown from the belfry, but his body is mysteriously absent from the ground below.
Beetlejuice: The Animated Series
Burton was executive producer of the Beetlejuice animated TV series.
1990
Edward Scissorhands
Production company: Twentieth Century Fox
Executive producer: Richard Hashimoto
Producers: Denise Di Novi, Tim Burton
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Caroline Thompson, story by Tim Burton and Caroline Thompson
Cinematography (colour): Stefan Czapsky
Editor: Richard Halsey, A.C.E.
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: Bo Welch
Special makeup and scissorhands effects: Stan Winston Studio
Cast includes: Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands), Winona Ryder (Kim), Dianne Wiest (Peg), Anthony Michael Hall (Jim), Kathy Baker (Joyce), Robert Oliveri (Kevin), Conchara Ferrell (Helen), Caroline Aaron (Marge), Dick Anthony Williams (Officer Allen), O-Lan Jones (Eseralda), Vincent Price (The Inventor), Alan Arkin (Bill)
105 mins. 35 mm
In a large, gothic-looking hilltop castle overlooking a pastel-coloured suburbia, Avon lady Peg Boggs finds Edward Scissorhands living all alone. The unfinished creation of an inventor who died of a heart attack before he could complete the job, Edward has everything a human should have, except, instead of hands, he has a pair of lethal shears. Feeling sorry for Edward, Peg removes him to her suburban home to live with her family.
Edward is soon accepted into the neighbourhood, revealing himself to be gifted at topiary and hairdressing. He is attracted to Peg’s cheerleader daughter Kim, but she only has eyes for her brutish boyfriend, Jim, until he tricks Edward into helping him rob his parents’ house and Edward is caught by the police and thrown in jail.
Later when Edward refuses the advances of Joyce, the local nymphomaniac, she turns the community against him, and he is chased to his mansion where he fights and kills Jim. Kim convinces everybody that Edward was also killed, leaving him alone in his castle once again.
Conversations with Vincent (working title)
Documentary about Vincent Price directed by Burton.
1992
Batman Returns
Production company: Warner Bros
Executive producers: Jon Peters, Peter Guber, Benjamin Melniker, Michael Uslan
Producers: Denise Di Novi, Tim Burton
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Daniel Waters, story by Daniel Waters and Sam Hamm, based on Batman characters created by Bob Kane
Cinematography (colour): Stefan Czapsky
Editor: Chris Lebenzon
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: Bo Welch
Cast includes: Michael Keaton (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Danny De Vito (Penguin), Michelle Pfeiffer (Catwoman/Selina Kyle), Christopher Walken (Max Shreck), Michael Gough (Alfred), Michael Murphy (Mayor), Cristi Conway (Ice Princess), Andrew Bryniarski (Chip), Pat Hingle (Commissioner Gordon), Vincent Schiavelli (Organ Grinder), Steve Witting (Josh), Jan Hooks (Jen), John Strong (Sword Swallower), Rick Zumwalt (Tattooed Strongman), Anna Katarina (Poodle Lady), Paul Reubens (Penguin’s Father), Diane Salinger (Penguin’s Mother)
126 mins. 35 mm
A deformed baby boy is thrown into Gotham City’s river by his horrified parents. Thirty-three years later, the child has been transformed into the hideous Penguin, whose gang disrupts the ceremonial lighting of Gotham’s Christmas tree and kidnaps millionaire industrialist Max Shreck. Armed with evidence of the villainous Shreck’s many crimes, the Penguin blackmails him into helping him discover the identity of his parents.
When The Penguin’s plight becomes news, he’s propelled into running for mayor. Batman is unconvinced by The Penguin, believing that he and his gang are responsible for several child murders. Meanwhile, Shreck hurls his dizzy secretary, Selina Kyle, from the top of his company’s building when she discovers his plan to build a super power-plant and drain Gotham of its electricity.
Resuscitated by a group of cats, Selina returns home and after a quick bit of needlework emerges as Catwoman. Kyle, meanwhile, is being romanced by Batman’s alter-ego Bruce Wayne, a situation complicated by Catwoman’s teaming up with The Penguin in an effort to rid Gotham of Batman. When Batman exposes The Penguin’s nasty, demented, villainous ways, thereby ruining his political chances, the Penguin mounts an attack to kill all of Gotham’s first-born infants. Batman foils his scheme and Catwoman, after killing Shreck, escapes to fight another day.
Singles
Burton cameos as Brian, a director of dating agency videos, in writer-director Cameron Crowe’s movie.
1993
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
Production company: Touchstone Pictures
Producers: Tim Burton, Denise Di Novi
Director: Henry Selick
Screenplay: Caroline Thompson, based on a story and characters by Tim
Burton, adaptation by Michael McDowell
Cinematography (colour): Pete Kozachik
Editor: Stan Webb
Music, lyrics and score: Danny Elfman
Art director: Deane Taylor
Cast: Danny Elfman (Jack Skellington’s singing voice), Chris Sarandon (Jack’s speaking voice), Catherine O’Hara (Sally), William Hickey (Evil Scientist), Glenn Shadix (Mayor), Paul Reubens (Lock), Catherine O’Hara (Shock), Danny Elfman (Barrel), Ken Page (Oogie Boogie), Ed Ivory (Santa)
76 mins. 35 mm
Fed up with Hallowe’en, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Hallowe’entown, discovers a doorway in the forest that leads to Christmastown. Enchanted by what he sees, Jack decides that next year he wants to run Christmas, and dispatches the mischievous trio Lock, Shock and Barrel to kidnap Santa. When Christmas Eve arrives, Jack takes off on his skeletal reindeer-driven sled to deliver the presents manufactured by the residents of Hallowe’entown, but instead of enchanting children the world over, the gifts terrify them. Eventually, Jack’s sled is shot down by the police and he returns to Hallowe’entown. Santa is freed and order is restored.
Cabin Boy
Comedy directed by Adam Resnick and produced by Burton and Denise Di Novi for Touchstone Pictures.
1994
Ed Wood
Production company: Touchstone Pictures
Executive producer: Michael Lehmann
Producers: Tim Burton, Denise Di Novi
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski
Cinematography (black and white): Stefan Czaspsky
Editor: Chris Lebenzon
Music: Howard Shore
Production designer: Tom Duffield
Cast includes: Johnny Depp (Ed Wood) Martin Landau (Bela Lugosi), Sarah Jessica Parker (Dolores Fuller), Patricia Arquette (Kathy O’Hara), Jeffrey Jones (Criswell), G. D. Spradlin (Reverend Lemon), Vincent D’Onofrio (Orson Welles), Bill Murray (Bunny Breckinridge), Mike Starr (Georgie Weiss), Max Casella (Paul Marco), Brent Hinkley (Conrad Brooks), Lisa Marie (Vampira), George ‘The Animal’ Steele (Tor Johnson), Juliet Landau (Loretta King), Clive Rosengren (Ed Reynolds), Norman Alden (Cameraman Bill), Leonard Termo (Make-up man Harry), Ned Bellamy (Dr Tom Mason)
Hollywood 1952, aspiring movie director Edward D. Wood Jr works in the plant shop of a Hollywood studio by day and puts on plays with his theatre group, The Casual Company, by night. One day on the way home from an interview for a directing job, he meets his idol and former big-screen horror star Bela Lugosi trying out coffins in a mortuary. Ed convinces an exploitation movie producer to let him write and direct a movie about a sex change and casts his new-found friend Bela Lugosi in a small part. When the film, Glen or Glenda – in reality the story of a man (played by Wood) who likes to dress in women’s clothing – proves less than successful, Ed and his friends are forced to raise the funds themselves for another feature, Bride of the Monster, again starring Bela Lugosi.
Late one night Ed receives a call from Bela asking for help and he turns up to find his friend on the floor of his home. Ed checks Bela into a hospital to cure him of his morphine addiction, but when the hospital discovers that Bela has no insurance to pay for the treatment he is discharged.
Ed shoots a small amount of footage of Bela leaving his house just before he dies. Later Ed incorporates this footage into another movie, Plan 9 from Outer Space, the financing for which he raises from the Baptist church of Beverley Hills. Plan 9’s cast and crew, including Ed and his wife-to-be Kathy, attend the première. The couple leave for Las Vegas to get married immediately afterwards, with Ed convinced that Plan 9 will be the film he will be remembered for.
James and the Giant Peach
A live-action/animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book, directed by Henry Selick and executive produced by Burton and Di Novi for Touchstone Pictures.
1995
Batman Forever
Third instalment of the Batman series, with Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne/ Batman, Jim Carrey as The Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face. Directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Burton and Peter MacGregor-Scott for Warner Bros.
1996
Mars Attacks!
Production company: Warner Bros
Producers: Tim Burton, Larry Franco
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Jonathan Gems
Cinematography (colour): Peter Suschitzy
Editor: Chris Lebenzon
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: Wynn Thomas
Cast includes: Jack Nicholson (President Dale/Art Land), Glenn Close (Marsha Dale), Annette Bening (Barbara Land), Pierce Brosnan (Donald Kessler), Danny DeVito (Rude Gambler), Martin Short (Jerry Ross), Sarah Jessica Parker (Nathalie Lake), Michael J. Fox (Jason Stone), Rod Steiger (Gen. Decker), Tom Jones (Himself), Lukas Haas (Richie Norris), Natalie Portman (Taffy Dale), Jim Brown (Byron Williams), Lisa Marie (Martian Girl), Sylvia Sidney (Grandma Norris)
Tuesday 9 May, 6.57 p.m., just outside Lockjaw, Kentucky: a flaming stampede of cattle marks the first sign of the imminent Martian invasion of Earth. The following morning, US President Dale is informed by his advisors of a fleet of Martian spacecraft amassing in the earth’s atmosphere and informs the populus of this momentous event. Three days later, Martians touch down in the Nevada desert and annihilate mankind’s welcoming committee, setting off a War of the Worlds-style invasion that lays waste to countries around the globe. Despite the best efforts of the US military, it’s lowly donut shop employee Richie Norris and his senile grandma from Kansas who inadvertently discover that the music of Slim Whitman can kill the Martians, thereby saving the world from total destruction.
1998
Hollywood Gum
French TV commercial for chewing-gum.
1999
Sleepy Hollow
Production company: Paramount Pictures/Scott Rudin Productions/
Mandalay Pictures
Executive producers: Larry Franco, Francis Ford Coppola
Producers: Scott Rudin, Adam Schroeder
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Andrew Kevin Walker
Cinematography (colour): Emmanuel Lubezki
Editor: Chris Lebenzon
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: Rick Heinrichs
Cast includes: Johnny Depp (Ichabod Crane), Christina Ricci (Katrina Van Tassel), Casper Van Dien (Brom Van Brunt), Miranda Richardson (Lady Van Tassel), Michael Gambon (Baltus Van Tassel), Marc Pickering (Young Masbeth), Christopher Walken (Hessian Horseman), Michael Gough (Hardenbrook), Christopher Lee (Burgomaster), Jeffrey Jones (Rev. Steenwyck), Lisa Marie (Lady Crane), Richard Griffiths (Phillipse), Ian McDiarmid (Dr Lancaster), Steven Waddington (Killian)
New York City, 1799. Police constable Ichabod Crane is despatched by his superiors to the upstate hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, two days’ journey north of the city, to investigate a series of brutal slayings in which the victims have been found decapitated, their heads taken. A proponent of new, though so far unproven investigative techniques such as finger-printing and autopsies, Crane arrives in Sleepy Hollow armed with his bag of scientific tricks only to be informed by the town’s elders that the murderer is not of flesh and blood, rather a headless supernatural warrior from beyond the grave who rides at night on a massive black steed. Crane doesn’t believe them and begins his own investigation, until, that is, he comes face to face with the Headless Horseman himself. Taking a room at the home of the town’s richest family, the Van Tassels, Crane develops an attraction to their daughter, the mysterious Katrina, even as he’s plagued by nightmares of his mother’s horrific torture when he was a child. Delving further into the mystery with the aid of the orphaned Young Masbeth, whose father was a victim of the Horseman, Crane discovers within the Western Woods both the Horseman’s entry point between this world and the beyond, the gnarled Tree of the Dead, as well as his grave, but finds his skull is missing. The murders continue until Crane uncovers a murky plot revolving around revenge and landrights with the Horseman controlled by Katrina’s stepmother Lady Van Tassel, who sends the killer after her. Following a fight in the local windmill and a stagecoach chase through the woods, Crane eventually thwarts Lady Van Tassel by returning the skull to the Horseman, who regains his head and heads back to Hell along with her. His job in Sleepy Hollow over, Crane, Katrina and Young Masbeth return to New York, in time for the centennial celebrations.
2000
Kung Fu/Mannequin
Two commercials for Timex I-Control watches directed by Burton for production house A Band Apart.
Stainboy
Six-part animated show for shockwave.com written and directed by Burton based on characters from The Melancholy Oyster Boy And Other Stories.
2001
Planet of the Apes
Production company: Twentieth Century Fox/Zanuck Company
Executive producer: Ralph Winter
Producers: Richard D. Zanuck
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: William Broyles Jr and Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal
Cinematography (colour): Philippe Rousselot
Editor: Chris Lebenzon
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: Rick Heinrichs
Cast includes: Mark Wahlberg (Captain Leo Davidson), Tim Roth, (Thade), Helena Bonham Carter (Ari), Michael Clarke Duncan (Attar), Paul Giamatti (Limbo), Kris Kristofferson (Karubi), Estella Warren (Darna), Cary-Hiroyuki (Krull), David Warner (Sandar), Erick Avari (Tival), Luke Eberl (Birn), Evan Dexter Parke (Gunnar), Senator Nado (Glenn Shadix), Lisa Marie (Nova), Charlton Heston (Thade’s father, uncredited)
119/120 mins. 35 mm
2029. The USAF Oberon, a space research station, uses chimpanzees rather than human pilots for its test missions. When Captain Leo Davidson’s pet chimp Pericles goes missing while investigating an electromagnetic storm, Leo disobeys a direct order and heads out into the void to rescue him and finds himself caught up in the same massive electrical disturbance which propels his ship forward in time several hundred years before it crash lands in a swamp on an uncharted planet. Almost immediately, he’s caught up in a manhunt through the forest; only those doing the pursuing aren’t human but talking apes on horseback wearing body armour. Leo is captured and together with a dozen or so humans is taken to Ape City, where he and a female, Darna, are sold by orang-utan slave dealer Limbo to sympathetic chimp Ari whose Senator father Sandar is trying to marry her off to Thade, an evil chimp and leader of the ape army. Following a dinner party in which Ari posits her theory that humans have a soul, Leo and Daena escape, find their way to Limbo’s slave market to free her father, brother and sister, plus a few other humans, who then, with the help of Ari and her gorilla Krull escape the city using a secret route, setting off to find Leo’s downed ship where he recovers his messenger device which picks up transmissions from the Oberon.
The source of the Oberon’s signal is the sacred ape site of Calima, deep in the forbidden desert zone, where legend has it that the first ape, Semos, will return. There, Leo finds his spaceship, but discovers it’s been half-buried in the desert for thousands of years. Meanwhile, the ape army under the leadership of Thade, who’s convinced the ape senate to declare martial law, masses in the desert in preparation for battle against the hundreds of humans who have joined Leo in Calima. As both sides fight, a spaceship descends from the sky piloted by Pericles who is mistaken for the returning Semos, causing the apes to down their weapons. Leo slips into the ship, followed by Thade who is trapped by Leo inside the bridge.
Outside Attar declares that from this day forth humans and apes will live alongside one another as equals. Leo says his goodbyes and takes off in Pericles’ pod, finding his way to the electromagnetic storm and then the solar system and he sets a course for Earth. As he crashes down in Washington in front of the Lincoln Memorial, police arrive on the scene, but rather than humans they’re apes, and the Lincoln Memorial no longer bears the face of the former US President, but that of Thade.
2003
Big Fish
Production company: Columbia Pictures, Jinks/Cohen Company, Zanuck
Company
Executive producer: Arne L. Schmidt
Producers: Richard D. Zanuck, Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: John August, based on the book Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic
Proportions by Daniel Wallace
Cinematography (colour): Philippe Rousselot
Editor: Chris Lebenzon
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: Dennis Gassner
Cast includes: Ewan McGregor (young Edward Bloom), Albert Finney (Edward Bloom senior), Billy Crudup (William Bloom), Jessica Lange (Sandra Bloom senior), Helena Bonham Carter (Jenny young and senior, The Witch), Alison Lohman (young Sandra Bloom), Robert Guillaume (Dr. Bennett senior), Marion Cotillard (Josephine), Matthew McGrory (Karl The Giant), David Denman (Don Price) Missi Pyle (Mildred), Loundon Wainwright (Beamen), Ada Tai (Ping), Arlene Tai (Jing), Steve Buscemi (Norther Winslow), Danny DeVito (Amos Calloway)
125 mins. 35 mm
American journalist in Paris William Bloom receives a phone call from his mother, Sandra, to say his estranged father, Edward, is seriously ill. Arriving at the familial home in Ashton, Alabama with his pregnant French wife, Josephine, Will is forced to confront his troubled relationship with his father, a former travelling salesman and spinner of elaborate tales to whom he’s rarely spoken in years. As William begins the awkward process of reconciliation, and attempts to find the truth behind the fiction of his father, a number of the self-aggrandising Edward Bloom’s mythical adventures – his childhood introduction to a witch whose glass-eye reveals the manner of your demise; his friendship with a sheep-eating giant; his detour to the ghostly town of Spectre and meeting with the poet-cum-bank robber-cum Wall Street bigwig Norther Winslow; his time in the circus; his courting of his bride Sandra; his time in the Korean War and his rescue of Siamese twin singers – are related as fact by Edward to his daughter-in-law and son, the latter of whom again dismisses their veracity. As Edward slips closer to death, Will begins the process of settling his father’s affairs and, delving into Edward’s past activities and associates, he discovers that there was much more truth in the older Bloom’s tall tales than he ever countenanced, and that sometimes the fantasy of a situation is preferable to the facts.
2005
Charlie and the Chocolate factory
Production company: Warnen Bros, Village Roadshow, Zanuck Company/
Plan B
Executive producers: Patrick McCormick, Felicity Dahl, Michael Siegel,
Graham Burke, Bruce Berman
Producers: Richard Zanuck, Brad Grey
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: John August based on the book by Roald Dahl
Cinematography (colour): Philippe Rousselot
Editor: Chris Lebenzon
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: Alex McDowell
Cast includes: Johnny Depp (Willy Wonka), Freddie Highmore (Charlie Bucket), David Kelly (Grandpa Joe), Helena Bonham Carter (Mrs Bucket), Noah Taylor (Mr Bucket), Missi Pyle (Mrs Beauregarde), James Fox (Mr Salt), Deep Roy (the Oompas), Christopher Lee (Mr Wonka), Jordan Fry (Mike Teavee), AnnaSophia Robb (Violet Beauregarde), Julia Winter (Veruca Salt), Philip Wiegratz (Augustus Gloop)
115 mins. 35 mm
Ten-year-old Charlie Bucket lives with his impoverished mother, father, and four grandparents in a dilapidated house near the factory of eccentric confectionary genius Willy Wonka. Mr Bucket works long hours at the local toothpaste plant to feed his family who exist mainly on a diet of cabbage soup. Despite their woeful plight, they are gripped by the news that reclusive confectionary genius Willy Wonka, who hasn’t been seen for many years, has secreted five Golden Tickets inside five of his chocolate bars and those who are lucky enough to find them will win a tour of his factory. Every year on his birthday, Charlie receives one bar of Wonka chocolate as his present but when he doesn’t find a ticket in his bar, he is understandably disappointed, especially as the tickets begin to be found around the globe. Then, one day, Charlie comes across some money in the street and, more out of hunger than anything else, buys himself a Wonka chocolate bar. Then another. And as he unwraps his second bar, he finds something shiny and golden – the fifth and final ticket – and joins the four other winning children – Veruca Salt, Mike TeaVee, Augustus Gloop and Violet Beauregarde – and their assorted parents and guardians on the trip of a lifetime. Once inside Wonka’s factory, the children fall to the wayside one by one, leaving only Charlie left. Touched by Charlie’s kind spirit, Wonka offers him the keys to his factory, making him heir to the Wonka candy fortune. But Wonka insists Charlie leaves his family behind and moves into the factory alone. He refuses Wonka’s offer telling him that family means everything to him. Later Wonka comes calling and Charlie takes him to see his estranged dentist father, Wilbur Wonka. Once reconciled, Wonka agrees to Charlie’s request to bring his family to the factory. And they all live happily ever after …
Corpse Bride
Production company: Warner Bros
Executive producers: Joe Ranft, Jeffrey Auerbach
Producers: Tim Burton, Allison Abbate
Directors: Tim Burton, Mike Johnson
Screenplay: Caroline Thompson, Pamela Pettler, John August
Cinematography (colour): Peter Kozachik
Editor: Jonathan Lucas
Music: Danny Elfman
Production designer: Alex McDowell
Art director: Nelson Lowry
Character designer: Carlos Grangel
Cast includes: Helena Bonham Carter (Corpse Bride), Johnny Depp (Victor Van Dort), Emily Watson (Victoria Everglot), Tracey Ullman (Nell Van Dort), Paul Whitehouse (William Van Dort), Joanna Lumley (Maudeline Everglot), Albert Finney (Finis Everglot), Richard E Grant (Barkis Bittern), Christopher Lee (Pastor Gallswell), Michael Gough (Elder Gutknecht) Jane Horrocks (Black Widow), Enn Reitel (Maggot), Paul Whitehouse (Paul The Head Waiter), Deep Roy (Napoleon Bonaparte)
77 mins. Shot on Canon digital still cameras
In a small, 19th century European village, Victor Van Dort, shy, only son of William and Nell Van Dort and heir to the Van Dort fish fortune, is due to marry Victoria Everglot, daughter of Finis and Maudeline Everglot who are the oldest family in town. Neither bride nor groom has met the other; they are pawns in a marriage of convenience arranged by their respective parents who hope that the union will bestow upon them wealth and respectability. Unable to remember his vows during the wedding rehearsal, Victor heads out into the forest to practice them placing the ring on what he believes to be a tree branch but it is in fact the finger of the Corpse Bride who erupts from the ground wearing a tattered wedding dress and proclaims the two of them married. She whisks Victor off to the land of the dead where Victor discovers that Corpse Bride’s real name is Emily and that she was murdered on her wedding day by a highway robber. Meanwhile, in the land of the living, Victoria’s parents have found her a new suitor, dastardly newcomer Barkis Bittern who agrees to marry her in place of Victor. After tricking Corpse Bride into briefly returning to the land of the living where Victoria and Corpse Bride meet, Victor feels bad for his actions after Mayhew, the Van Dort’s recently deceased driver, pops up in the land of the dead and tells Victor of Victoria’s wedding plans, he agrees to marry Emily properly, even if that means he must die by drinking a magical potion that will stop his heart forever. They decide to move their wedding upstairs to the land of the dead where the underworld’s celebrations disrupt Barkis’ and Victoria’s wedding feast. Corpse Bride recognises Barkis as the man who murdered her and stole her wedding ring years before. After duelling with Victor, Barkis drinks from the chalice meant for Victor and dies. Although Victor is still prepared to go through with his wedding, Corpse Bride is unable to see Victor die for her and she leaves Victor and Victoria free to marry.