Tim Burton had brought up the idea of Frankenweenie long before he finally was given the go-ahead. Development for the stop motion animated film dates back to late 2005, but didn't finally come out until recently. He went on to direct Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows before his latest time in the director's chair. But the hold-off with Frankenweenie begs a follow-up question: What other ideas did the Scissorhands filmmaker ever have that didn't make it to the big screen? Apparently the answer is Michael Jackson.
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Taken 2 exploded in its opening with $50 million and a spectacular per screen average of $13,657 in wide release. The film had one of the biggest October openings ever, showing momentum that should propel it in the coming weeks. Last weekend's box office topper, Hotel Transylvania, held strong in its second weekend, landing second in the box office ranking. Frankenweenie, meanwhile, failed to appeal to large numbers of theater-goers, only placing fifth on the box office chart in a wide open.
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Hollywood veteran Martin Landau earned an Oscar in his first collaboration with Tim Burton, 1994's Ed Wood, and for Burton's latest and most personal picture, Frankenweenie, the filmmaker cast his erstwhile Bela Lugosi as the eccentric but inspirational Mr. Rzykruski — the science teacher who nurtures young Victor Frankenstein's budding talents and encourages him to forge his own path. It's a fitting role for the 84-year-old Landau, who lit up as he discussed Frankenweenie and his longtime parallel career as an acting coach to the likes of Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Huston, and many more Hollywood greats under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.
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The unshakeable bond between a shy nerd from the ‘burbs and his faithful dog is the heart of Frankenweenie, the black and white stop motion picture (in theaters today) Tim Burton refers to as a “memory piece.” Drawn from his own childhood memories of growing up in Burbank, California, it’s an ode to the kooky neighborhood kids and adults Burton knew, the monster movies that shaped him, and, as Burton told Movieline with a smile, his way of teaching kids about one of the toughest facts of life: Death.
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It’s too bad that Frankenweenie comes at this late-middle stage of Tim Burton’s career when the director, now more brand than auteur, has lost his older fans, because it’s exactly the kind of funny, creepy, poignant film many of us have been waiting for Burton to make since Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s probably too early to peg Frankenweenie as Burton’s comeback vehicle, but it’s certainly the director’s best movie in twenty years.
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Sweeping into Austin to present Fantastic Fest’s opening night film Frankenweenie in his signature tinted glasses, director Tim Burton extolled the virtues of one of his most favored art forms: Stop-motion animation. “It’s such a beautiful, rarified medium,” said Burton, who returns to many of his roots — stop motion, black and white film, monster movies, macabre kids tales, and his own 1984 short film of the same name, about a boy who brings his beloved dog back from the grave — in the feature-length October release.
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The Hamptons International Film Festival released its 2012 slate with a lineup of festival circuit notables as well as World, U.S. and East Coast premieres. HIFF released its Opening Films, including Love, Marilyn, Silver Linings Playbook, Argo and Not Fade Away recently. Today's list includes the festival's Spotlight Films section including Tim Burton's latest, Frankenweenie and Cannes Palme d'Or winner Amour. And The Girl with Toby Jones, Sienna Miller and Imelda Staunton will have its worldwide debut at the upcoming event.
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Also in Thursday morning's round up of news briefs, Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock scores a CNN show. For the first time, the Venice Film Festival will screen some of its films via the internet alongside their premieres. And a boxing pic is in the works for a Red Riding Hood actor.
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They say it is good to get a child a pet because its mortality will acclimate the youngster to the concept of death. Clearly Tim Burton never saw it that way.
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Also in Friday morning's news round up, it looks like the next round of Hunger Games cast is shaping up. Psychological thriller Gut gets a digital distribution home and perhaps not exactly film-direct news, but the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the FCC over that Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" back in 2004…
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Tim Burton's Frankenweenie may have to wait until early October before it hits screens, but movie fans will have a chance to get an early look at images from the stop-motion animated feature during an exhibition tour beginning next week in Barcelona, Spain that continues on to seven countries including the U.S.
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Leave it to Tim Burton to make even the gruesomest scenarios utterly heart-wrenching; I started welling up during the first 30 seconds of the new trailer for Frankenweenie, the black and white stop-motion animation adaptation of Burton's well-loved short of the same name. Watch it and shed a tear for the childhood pets you once loved.
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