Watch "a rather puzzled Helena Bonham Carter" and other stars in this clip from Reelz Channel
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Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Helena on the Late Late Show
I'm a huge Craig Ferguson fan, and Helena was on last night's episode of the Late Late Show
So imagine my excitement ;)
Watch the video via megavideo:
So imagine my excitement ;)
Watch the video via megavideo:
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Deathly Hallows US Premiere
Allie is Wired will be streaming video LIVE of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows US premiere in New York City. Catch interviews with the cast and clips of Helena on Monday, November 15th at 6pm ET
Monday, February 22, 2010
Updates on Dark Shadows, Pirates 4 and More
Check out this interview with Johnny Depp, where he discusses Dark Shadows, The Tourist, and Pirates of the Caribbean 4.
And also this interview with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp:
And also this interview with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp:
Monday, February 8, 2010
Mia Wasikowska interview/ photo shoot
Saturday, February 6, 2010
HBC Interview
The Gardian interviewed Helena Bonham Carter about Alice, life with Tim Burton and had an awesome photo shoot! Here are the pictures, read the entire article here.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Inteview: Danny Eflman Talks With Tim Burton
Interviewmagazine.com is featuring the complete dialogue between director Tim Burton and music composer Danny Elfman as Elfman interviews Tim. Read the whole conversation at the link!
Anne Hathaway Talks Alice
Here's a Q&A with actress Anne Hathaway, who plays the White Queen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, posted by the Alice Facebook page:
Q: Is this an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s books?
A: This is “Alice in Wonderland” 10 years later. The story isn’t the same. And in re-reading the book in preparation for the film, I noticed that a lot of it is Alice trying to figure out who she isn’t by process of elimination. She knows that she isn’t all the things that people are saying that she is, and so, by going through all of them, she gets a better idea of what she is. And in the Tim Burton “ALICE IN WONDERLAND,” Alice is trying to name who she is without using the process of elimination in a similar way. There’s a great line in it, where someone says, “You seem like Alice, but you’ve lost your muchness.” That’s my favorite line. So I think if the book is about Alice exploring her imagination, this one is about Alice finding her soul.
Q: Why have his books been enjoyed for generations?
A: In my opinion, what makes a great book is something that is universally specific. I didn’t read the “Alice” books when I was a child. I read them when I was in college. I was really into Nabokov, and apparently, he was really into Lewis Carroll, so I thought it was a good idea. So I read it from the perspective of a young woman becoming a woman—and I really related to it, the idea that you’re never the right size, that you could drink something to make you feel smaller, or eat something to make you feel bigger. I remember that it just appealed to me because I understood it. On the surface, it’s kind of light and fantastical, but it actually does play into a lot of deep, psychological fears we have—inadequacies that we feel we have, insecurities, the way we relate to the world around us. And in Wonderland, the world is hyper-emotional. It doesn’t make sense. People don’t make logical, emotional sense, and people feel things very, very grandly, and it’s just full of contrarians. So then, you have this young girl—who’s quite sensible, especially for a young girl—navigating her way through it. Sometimes, you feel like you’re the supporting cast of characters, the Wonderland crew, and then other times, you feel like you’re Alice. Like I said, when something is that universally specific—universal enough that it’s just a great, entertaining story, but specific enough that you can find yourself in it and relate to it at different points in your life—I think that could possibly explain why people keep going back to it.
Q: Why are Carroll’s characters such great fodder for film?
A: One of the reasons why Lewis Carroll’s characters work so well in cinema is because they’re wildly imaginative and there’s no one way to interpret them. Because Lewis Carroll played around with words and concepts, and because the characters appeal to the imagination, I feel there are as many interpretations as there are imaginations in the world. It depends on what your take is.
Q: And why are the characters also great for a Tim Burton movie?
A: One of the reasons why “ALICE IN WONDERLAND” and Tim are such a great match is because nothing is exactly as it seems in Wonderland. Nothing is entirely good or entirely bad. There’s a mixture of life and texture and intention, and I think that’s something with which Tim is really comfortable. And if you look throughout his filmography, nothing is ever what it appears to be or should be. So, I think in that sense, living in the questions, the ambiguity, but also the specificity of the world—these are things in which Tim excels as filmmaker. I believe the filmmaker and the subject matter complement each other really beautifully in this film.
Q: Describe the character you play.
A: I play the White Queen. When I was trying to work her out, I kept saying to myself, ‘She is a punk-rock, vegan pacifist.’ So I listened to a lot of Blondie, I watched a lot of Greta Garbo movies, and I looked at a lot of the artwork of Dan Flavin. Then a little bit of Norma Desmond got thrown in there, too. And she just kind of emerged. And I really like her. When I first came onboard the project, Tim talked a lot about the relationship between the sisters, and that really opened the character up to me a lot. She comes from the same gene pool as the Red Queen. She really likes the dark side, but she’s so scared of going too far into it that she’s made everything appear very light and happy. But she’s living in that place out of fear that she won’t be able to control herself. There’s a lot to play around in. It was awesome. I had so much fun.
Q: Why did you want to be in this film and play this role?
A: I’m just going to be a gushy fan for a second. I love Tim Burton—he’s one of my all-time favorite filmmakers. For as long as he’s been making films, I’ve been going to them opening weekend. And I watch them again and again on DVD. I love his aesthetic. I love his ability to pace as a filmmaker, his comfort with things that are kind of odd—he also finds a way to ground them. I think it’s very unusual to find a filmmaker who isn’t trying to be different for the sake of being different, to show you something you’ve never seen, but is actually yearning to stretch the limits of his imagination. So everything Tim does comes from a very pure place. And I think that’s why his movies, in spite of the sometimes off-beat subject matter, have such heart. I love that. “Alice” itself is such a classic, amazing story, and it has been told so many times—but when I heard the combination Tim Burton/”ALICE IN WONDERLAND,” I knew it was going to be a very specific, very wonderful adventure. I love my character. I love that she seems to be the voice of reason—you’d think that she would be the good queen. But she didn’t have to be. I really had a lot of fun playing around with this idea, that what’s good in Wonderland is not necessarily good in the real world.
Q: Describe what she does with her hands, and the way that she walks.
A: That was absolutely derivative from the costume because, [costume designer] Colleen Atwood, who’s just such a genius, made this dress that has so much detail to it, that’s so complex, but it doesn’t look at all heavy. It looks like if you didn’t attach a weight to it, that it would float up into the air and spin around. And I noticed the way the dress moved when I was in it. It was never my intention to create a perfect light. I just wanted her to arrive in certain places, and in my head I just thought, the way she walks, she occasionally bumps into things and doesn’t know how she got there. And she’s a little dopey and kind of ditzy, but at the same time, very clued in. And so, the walk just happened. I took very, very fast footsteps, and I noticed the more languid I could make my arms, the more it looked like I was gliding. And that’s when the Norma Desmond thing happened. I remember being really nervous about the first take. And I did it and Tim smiled, so it was nice. That’s the feeling on set. ‘Show me your imagination. Show me how far you can take this.’ And I always had absolute trust that if it went too far, Tim would pull it back. He actually has a story in his head that he wants to tell. So usually what would happen, it would be some kind of combination of straightforward story and imaginary weirdness. And it was just nice the way it all fit together.
Q: What’s going on with the White Queen when we first meet her?
A: The White Queen has had her crown taken from her, and she’s basically powerless to stop her sister’s reign of tyranny. Her sister is the Red Queen. And so, she is waiting. She’s basically taken a vow of non-violence that she cannot break, and she’s waiting for her champion to arrive to help her reclaim her throne—the citizens of Underland would like to see that happen. They want to see her restored to power, because she’s kind.
Q: What is the relationship between the White Queen and the Red Queen?
A: The relationship between the White Queen and the Red Queen is not good. They are sisters, but I don’t think it was ever particularly good. I just think that my character would never admit that she doesn’t like her sister. I think she tries to make excuses for her. She tries to find little things to love about her, but she really doesn’t that much. I think, from her perspective, if the Red Queen were just a bit nicer to her—allow the possibility that they could be friends, allow the room for love—that she would be willing to give over to it. But the Red Queen just rubs her the wrong way. They’re not buddies—they’re just related.
Q: Who plays the Red Queen?
A: Helena Bonham Carter, in addition to being one of the most brilliant women I’ve ever had the pleasure to talk to, is so much fun as the Red Queen. She has so much energy that she gives to it. And her characterization is so lovely and demanding, not child-like but childish, and selfish and impossible to please. Then, at other times, she’s really vulnerable and sad, because this person is going to be lonely forever, because she’s just so darn selfish. She’s endlessly entertaining in the role. Her look and the dedication that it takes—three, four hours to get into that hair and makeup.
Q: Talk about the actor who plays The Mad Hatter.
A: The actor who plays the Mad Hatter, Johnny Depp—I have so much fun watching him in all of his movies as an audience member, so to actually get to watch him perform live is such a treat. He’s so inventive—and he’s kind, just a very kind, warm man. But to actually watch him in his element, in his zone, just acting, it’s a thrill. I want him to do theater so that everyone else can get in on it. He’s very powerful. I just felt very privileged to get to watch him.
Q: What does Mia Wasikowska bring to her role?
A: Mia Wasikowska is an absolute delight of a young woman. She’s so playful and natural and down-to-earth—but she also has this ethereal quality to her, she feels timeless. What she brings to Alice is very, very difficult to pull off. Every time I do a scene with her, I’m just amazed at what she’s doing with it and that a young actress can bring so much gravity to this world. It’s somewhat eerie, the way she’s able to communicate feeling and where Alice is at that moment. It was lovely to work with her, just to get to observe that.
Q: What is your impression about how this film is being made?
A: I took a very Zen approach to filmmaking on this one. It sounds silly, but I had no idea what was going on. I walked in and it was like being in a neon-green terrarium--green on all sides, and tons of empty space. Tim knew what was going on—he was the one that is in control of it. All I needed to do was hit my mark and say my lines, and wait for Tim to tell me that we’re ready to move on. And that was my approach to it. I didn’t put any other pressure on myself. I just showed up and acted.
Q: What are you wearing in this movie?
A: I’m wearing a dress designed by Colleen Atwood. It’s grand and the most fragile dress I’ve ever worn in my life. I love it so much. It’s beautiful. If you ever had a dream of being any kind of fairy princess, this is the dress you would wear. I love the idea that it’s this idealized, fairy-tale Queen, but it is in a Tim Burton movie, so there’s darkness mixed up with it as well.
Q: What do audiences have to look forward to with this film?
A: Because the world of this film begins and ends in the imagination of Tim Burton, you’re not seeing a movie that’s been shot on locations that you’ve seen a million times. Because this world has no rules, you’re seeing so many different and separate brushstrokes and colors and characterizations somehow getting combined through Tim. And what I think you’re getting is an absolute exploration of the imagination. I think that’s the essence of the book, and I think that’s the spirit Tim’s brought to the film. Everybody on the film was so clever, so creative, so imaginative—and I think that’s what the film is about—how can we tell a story that honors the imagination in the most imaginative way humanly possible? And that’s such a fantastic idea.
Q: Is this an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s books?
A: This is “Alice in Wonderland” 10 years later. The story isn’t the same. And in re-reading the book in preparation for the film, I noticed that a lot of it is Alice trying to figure out who she isn’t by process of elimination. She knows that she isn’t all the things that people are saying that she is, and so, by going through all of them, she gets a better idea of what she is. And in the Tim Burton “ALICE IN WONDERLAND,” Alice is trying to name who she is without using the process of elimination in a similar way. There’s a great line in it, where someone says, “You seem like Alice, but you’ve lost your muchness.” That’s my favorite line. So I think if the book is about Alice exploring her imagination, this one is about Alice finding her soul.
Q: Why have his books been enjoyed for generations?
A: In my opinion, what makes a great book is something that is universally specific. I didn’t read the “Alice” books when I was a child. I read them when I was in college. I was really into Nabokov, and apparently, he was really into Lewis Carroll, so I thought it was a good idea. So I read it from the perspective of a young woman becoming a woman—and I really related to it, the idea that you’re never the right size, that you could drink something to make you feel smaller, or eat something to make you feel bigger. I remember that it just appealed to me because I understood it. On the surface, it’s kind of light and fantastical, but it actually does play into a lot of deep, psychological fears we have—inadequacies that we feel we have, insecurities, the way we relate to the world around us. And in Wonderland, the world is hyper-emotional. It doesn’t make sense. People don’t make logical, emotional sense, and people feel things very, very grandly, and it’s just full of contrarians. So then, you have this young girl—who’s quite sensible, especially for a young girl—navigating her way through it. Sometimes, you feel like you’re the supporting cast of characters, the Wonderland crew, and then other times, you feel like you’re Alice. Like I said, when something is that universally specific—universal enough that it’s just a great, entertaining story, but specific enough that you can find yourself in it and relate to it at different points in your life—I think that could possibly explain why people keep going back to it.
Q: Why are Carroll’s characters such great fodder for film?
A: One of the reasons why Lewis Carroll’s characters work so well in cinema is because they’re wildly imaginative and there’s no one way to interpret them. Because Lewis Carroll played around with words and concepts, and because the characters appeal to the imagination, I feel there are as many interpretations as there are imaginations in the world. It depends on what your take is.
Q: And why are the characters also great for a Tim Burton movie?
A: One of the reasons why “ALICE IN WONDERLAND” and Tim are such a great match is because nothing is exactly as it seems in Wonderland. Nothing is entirely good or entirely bad. There’s a mixture of life and texture and intention, and I think that’s something with which Tim is really comfortable. And if you look throughout his filmography, nothing is ever what it appears to be or should be. So, I think in that sense, living in the questions, the ambiguity, but also the specificity of the world—these are things in which Tim excels as filmmaker. I believe the filmmaker and the subject matter complement each other really beautifully in this film.
Q: Describe the character you play.
A: I play the White Queen. When I was trying to work her out, I kept saying to myself, ‘She is a punk-rock, vegan pacifist.’ So I listened to a lot of Blondie, I watched a lot of Greta Garbo movies, and I looked at a lot of the artwork of Dan Flavin. Then a little bit of Norma Desmond got thrown in there, too. And she just kind of emerged. And I really like her. When I first came onboard the project, Tim talked a lot about the relationship between the sisters, and that really opened the character up to me a lot. She comes from the same gene pool as the Red Queen. She really likes the dark side, but she’s so scared of going too far into it that she’s made everything appear very light and happy. But she’s living in that place out of fear that she won’t be able to control herself. There’s a lot to play around in. It was awesome. I had so much fun.
Q: Why did you want to be in this film and play this role?
A: I’m just going to be a gushy fan for a second. I love Tim Burton—he’s one of my all-time favorite filmmakers. For as long as he’s been making films, I’ve been going to them opening weekend. And I watch them again and again on DVD. I love his aesthetic. I love his ability to pace as a filmmaker, his comfort with things that are kind of odd—he also finds a way to ground them. I think it’s very unusual to find a filmmaker who isn’t trying to be different for the sake of being different, to show you something you’ve never seen, but is actually yearning to stretch the limits of his imagination. So everything Tim does comes from a very pure place. And I think that’s why his movies, in spite of the sometimes off-beat subject matter, have such heart. I love that. “Alice” itself is such a classic, amazing story, and it has been told so many times—but when I heard the combination Tim Burton/”ALICE IN WONDERLAND,” I knew it was going to be a very specific, very wonderful adventure. I love my character. I love that she seems to be the voice of reason—you’d think that she would be the good queen. But she didn’t have to be. I really had a lot of fun playing around with this idea, that what’s good in Wonderland is not necessarily good in the real world.
Q: Describe what she does with her hands, and the way that she walks.
A: That was absolutely derivative from the costume because, [costume designer] Colleen Atwood, who’s just such a genius, made this dress that has so much detail to it, that’s so complex, but it doesn’t look at all heavy. It looks like if you didn’t attach a weight to it, that it would float up into the air and spin around. And I noticed the way the dress moved when I was in it. It was never my intention to create a perfect light. I just wanted her to arrive in certain places, and in my head I just thought, the way she walks, she occasionally bumps into things and doesn’t know how she got there. And she’s a little dopey and kind of ditzy, but at the same time, very clued in. And so, the walk just happened. I took very, very fast footsteps, and I noticed the more languid I could make my arms, the more it looked like I was gliding. And that’s when the Norma Desmond thing happened. I remember being really nervous about the first take. And I did it and Tim smiled, so it was nice. That’s the feeling on set. ‘Show me your imagination. Show me how far you can take this.’ And I always had absolute trust that if it went too far, Tim would pull it back. He actually has a story in his head that he wants to tell. So usually what would happen, it would be some kind of combination of straightforward story and imaginary weirdness. And it was just nice the way it all fit together.
Q: What’s going on with the White Queen when we first meet her?
A: The White Queen has had her crown taken from her, and she’s basically powerless to stop her sister’s reign of tyranny. Her sister is the Red Queen. And so, she is waiting. She’s basically taken a vow of non-violence that she cannot break, and she’s waiting for her champion to arrive to help her reclaim her throne—the citizens of Underland would like to see that happen. They want to see her restored to power, because she’s kind.
Q: What is the relationship between the White Queen and the Red Queen?
A: The relationship between the White Queen and the Red Queen is not good. They are sisters, but I don’t think it was ever particularly good. I just think that my character would never admit that she doesn’t like her sister. I think she tries to make excuses for her. She tries to find little things to love about her, but she really doesn’t that much. I think, from her perspective, if the Red Queen were just a bit nicer to her—allow the possibility that they could be friends, allow the room for love—that she would be willing to give over to it. But the Red Queen just rubs her the wrong way. They’re not buddies—they’re just related.
Q: Who plays the Red Queen?
A: Helena Bonham Carter, in addition to being one of the most brilliant women I’ve ever had the pleasure to talk to, is so much fun as the Red Queen. She has so much energy that she gives to it. And her characterization is so lovely and demanding, not child-like but childish, and selfish and impossible to please. Then, at other times, she’s really vulnerable and sad, because this person is going to be lonely forever, because she’s just so darn selfish. She’s endlessly entertaining in the role. Her look and the dedication that it takes—three, four hours to get into that hair and makeup.
Q: Talk about the actor who plays The Mad Hatter.
A: The actor who plays the Mad Hatter, Johnny Depp—I have so much fun watching him in all of his movies as an audience member, so to actually get to watch him perform live is such a treat. He’s so inventive—and he’s kind, just a very kind, warm man. But to actually watch him in his element, in his zone, just acting, it’s a thrill. I want him to do theater so that everyone else can get in on it. He’s very powerful. I just felt very privileged to get to watch him.
Q: What does Mia Wasikowska bring to her role?
A: Mia Wasikowska is an absolute delight of a young woman. She’s so playful and natural and down-to-earth—but she also has this ethereal quality to her, she feels timeless. What she brings to Alice is very, very difficult to pull off. Every time I do a scene with her, I’m just amazed at what she’s doing with it and that a young actress can bring so much gravity to this world. It’s somewhat eerie, the way she’s able to communicate feeling and where Alice is at that moment. It was lovely to work with her, just to get to observe that.
Q: What is your impression about how this film is being made?
A: I took a very Zen approach to filmmaking on this one. It sounds silly, but I had no idea what was going on. I walked in and it was like being in a neon-green terrarium--green on all sides, and tons of empty space. Tim knew what was going on—he was the one that is in control of it. All I needed to do was hit my mark and say my lines, and wait for Tim to tell me that we’re ready to move on. And that was my approach to it. I didn’t put any other pressure on myself. I just showed up and acted.
Q: What are you wearing in this movie?
A: I’m wearing a dress designed by Colleen Atwood. It’s grand and the most fragile dress I’ve ever worn in my life. I love it so much. It’s beautiful. If you ever had a dream of being any kind of fairy princess, this is the dress you would wear. I love the idea that it’s this idealized, fairy-tale Queen, but it is in a Tim Burton movie, so there’s darkness mixed up with it as well.
Q: What do audiences have to look forward to with this film?
A: Because the world of this film begins and ends in the imagination of Tim Burton, you’re not seeing a movie that’s been shot on locations that you’ve seen a million times. Because this world has no rules, you’re seeing so many different and separate brushstrokes and colors and characterizations somehow getting combined through Tim. And what I think you’re getting is an absolute exploration of the imagination. I think that’s the essence of the book, and I think that’s the spirit Tim’s brought to the film. Everybody on the film was so clever, so creative, so imaginative—and I think that’s what the film is about—how can we tell a story that honors the imagination in the most imaginative way humanly possible? And that’s such a fantastic idea.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Friday, October 9, 2009
Sin City 3 Still in Talks
In an interview with Gerard Butler, Sin City 3 (which has Johnny Depp's name tied to it, if you'll recall) was brought up. The MTV interview says:
"I could see myself working with Frank again," said Butler. "But, I don't know. Graphic novels are things that I wouldn't do a lot of, so I would have to really choose carefully before I did."
But one movie that the duo already discussed is a future "SinCity " installment. "At one point, he talked to me about one of the 'Sin City' [movies]," Butler explained. "And we discussed that."
He continued: "There's a kind of cool character I think in the third one, but it was all very kind of soft talk."
If Butler boards "Sin City 3" that would mean that he could star in the film opposite actors like Angelina Jolie and JohnnyDepp , who have previously confirmed their involvement in the third movie. If we could only skip the annoying second installment.
There hasn't been much news lately about Johnny Depp's involvment in Sin City 3 (there hasn't been a Sin City 2 released yet, so that's no surprise) but if anything comes up we'll post it!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Burton and Harrhausen
Wanna see Tim Burton interviewing Ray Harryhausen? I knew you would, follow this link: http://www.cinematical.com/2009/09/20/watch-this-tim-burton-interviews-ray-harryhausen/
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Watch Elijah Tonight!
Elijah Wood will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon TONIGHT at 12:35 am PST/EST on NBC
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Elijah Wood does more press for 9
Elijah Wood will be giving you sneak peeks of 9 on MTV tonight from 9-11 p.m. PST/EST, so watch it, TeVo it, or come back later to see if I found a video of it on the internet :)
Here's a video of Elijah's appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien: Part 1
Part 2:
If you're a tweeter, you should go follow Focus Features because they're giving away a signed 9 Movie poster every time they get 99 new followers, details are on their Twitter page.
Follow up on a previous story: we posted a story about Tom Binns's collection of Alice in Wonderland inspired jewelry, here's a picture of a necklace from the collection:
Here's a video of Elijah's appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien: Part 1
Part 2:
If you're a tweeter, you should go follow Focus Features because they're giving away a signed 9 Movie poster every time they get 99 new followers, details are on their Twitter page.
Follow up on a previous story: we posted a story about Tom Binns's collection of Alice in Wonderland inspired jewelry, here's a picture of a necklace from the collection:
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tim Talks About 9
The Epoch Times talked to Tim Burton about 9, which you can read it in it's entirety here.
“What do I want when I make a movie, what is helpful to me … so we both, Timur [Bekmambetov, co-producer] and I, tried to offer Shane that sort of support. You know I suggested the screenwriter whom I work with, and so I knew that’d be a good mix of people like Danny [Elfman, the film's composer] and wherever I could give anything.”
“The thing that intrigued me about [9] was, you see a lot of personal films, you rarely see the slightly personalized animated films … and that’s what I liked about it. And we’ve all seen post-apocalyptic imagery a million times. But again, I was surprised at how the kind of poetry to this and the sort of quietness and the kind of things between the lines to this that I really enjoyed—the style of animation, the performances going for a more naturalistic [feel]. It just felt like it was in new category in terms of animation.”
“What do I want when I make a movie, what is helpful to me … so we both, Timur [Bekmambetov, co-producer] and I, tried to offer Shane that sort of support. You know I suggested the screenwriter whom I work with, and so I knew that’d be a good mix of people like Danny [Elfman, the film's composer] and wherever I could give anything.”
“The thing that intrigued me about [9] was, you see a lot of personal films, you rarely see the slightly personalized animated films … and that’s what I liked about it. And we’ve all seen post-apocalyptic imagery a million times. But again, I was surprised at how the kind of poetry to this and the sort of quietness and the kind of things between the lines to this that I really enjoyed—the style of animation, the performances going for a more naturalistic [feel]. It just felt like it was in new category in terms of animation.”
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Burton, Acker, and Bekmambetov talk 9
There is an interview with the brilliance behind 9, Director Shane Acker and producers Tim Burton and Timur Bakmambetov over at http://screencrave.com. Here's a bit of it:
Tim, this is a very unique project. How did you get involved with this?
Tim Burton: Well I saw Shane’s short film and it just blew me away. It was amazing. After going through stuff myself trying to get movies made and people complaining like “Why doesn’t the character have any eyeballs?” and things like that, I think our goal was to just let Shane make his movie.
Did you get this financed as an independent film?
Shane Acker: Yeah, it was a negative pick-up. I mean, the idea was I guess Focus guaranteed the money to buy the film as long as it met X amount of criteria at the end which kind of gave us the creative space to make the film that we wanted outside of their direct input or involvement, although they were definitely involved in the process. We were doing it at such a modest budget that we were able to take the risks and do the things that we really wanted to do and explore in this medium that is typically a medium designed for more family oriented material.
How do you do an animated film with a low budget these days?
Tim Burton: We did it.
Shane Acker: Well, yeah. You just find the right creative team and you make the right decisions as you’re going forward and just be really dedicated to the project and be conservative about your design but not let it be really…because we’re making a world…
Tim Burton: You did your short pretty much in your basement or garage. Right?
Shane Acker: Yeah. I think the technology is in the hands of artists now. You don’t need a whole studio like Pixar in place to do these films. You can take the software and put the team together and make these films yourself, and I think it’s a pretty exciting time because it’s not about the technological challenge now. It’s just about the stories and what is the story that you want to tell.
Did you teach Tim that movies can be made for a lot cheaper?
Tim Burton: Oh yeah. I mean, it’s great. It does allow a certain freedom that you don’t get when you’re dealing with big budget studio [films]. Fair enough. This was such a pleasure. They made the movie and it just was such a pleasure to see if he’d be able to do it and do what they wanted to do without any negative involvement with things. So, it was very liberating to see this process happen.
Johnny Depp Quits Quixote and more Wonderland
Johnny Depp has walked away from a movie about Don Quixote because filming was delayed for a decade, due to weather bashed sets and a lack of financial ability to fix them.
Johnny said: "I wanted to shoot Don Quixote next spring. He said he's not available and we have both agreed that I'm going to die soon, so it would be nice to get this film under my belt."
Http://www.screenindia.com interviewed Tim Burton about his Alice in Wonderland among which are these questions:
Can you explain your vision for Alice In Wonderland?
No, because I still have a lot to do. (Laughs) I mean, we’re trying to make a movie. I just take versions and...because it’s kind of like comic material, although I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a movie that I’ve really liked based on it because it’s always kind of been a series of weird events. Everybody’s crazy and it’s sort of a passive little girl wandering around from episode-to-episode. So even though the books and the stories are iconic, I’ve never felt that there was a film that really kind of made it a film, translated from the story to a film. So that’s the attempt.
Johnny said: "I wanted to shoot Don Quixote next spring. He said he's not available and we have both agreed that I'm going to die soon, so it would be nice to get this film under my belt."
Http://www.screenindia.com interviewed Tim Burton about his Alice in Wonderland among which are these questions:
Can you explain your vision for Alice In Wonderland?
No, because I still have a lot to do. (Laughs) I mean, we’re trying to make a movie. I just take versions and...because it’s kind of like comic material, although I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a movie that I’ve really liked based on it because it’s always kind of been a series of weird events. Everybody’s crazy and it’s sort of a passive little girl wandering around from episode-to-episode. So even though the books and the stories are iconic, I’ve never felt that there was a film that really kind of made it a film, translated from the story to a film. So that’s the attempt.
What does Johnny Depp bring to the Mad Hatter?
He likes dressing up. I think with the Alice In Wonderland characters, they’ve often been portrayed as just crazy without much subtext and I think he tried to bring something, an underlying human quality to the craziness. He tried to understand it a bit more...We try to give each character their own particular craziness. And he’s good at sort of exploring that, I guess because he’s crazy. I don’t know.
What is your relationship like with Depp?
We seem to get along well and I’ve worked with him many times. It’s always exciting to see what he brings to something. And it’s fun to work with him because it’s like it’s always something different and new and it’s just fun to see. That always is exciting to me.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Have any questions for Mr. Tim Burton?
The people from http://splashpage.mtv.com will be talking to Tim Burton on Thursday, and have offered to accept questions that fans have for Tim, which can be sent to tips@mtvmoviesblog.com before Thursday (July 30) morning. They say that questions about 9 are encouraged, but other questions are alright. Look back to HBCfanclub for the interview by splash page.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Tim Burton Talks Dark Shadows, Alice and 9
The LA Times talked to Tim Burton at Comic Con:
G.M.: You mentioned during the Focus Features' panel on "9" that you felt you shared a certain sensibility with the film's director, Shane Acker. I can't imagine that's something you experience too often.
T.B.: I don't. Also, too it was different enough from mine, but I felt a connection to it. Having gone through this process myself trying to get films made and done and how much of a problem it is to have that happen, I thought I could help him with that, I thought I could help protect him from the forces of evil and let him focus on making his film.
Read the rest HERE.
G.M.: You mentioned during the Focus Features' panel on "9" that you felt you shared a certain sensibility with the film's director, Shane Acker. I can't imagine that's something you experience too often.
T.B.: I don't. Also, too it was different enough from mine, but I felt a connection to it. Having gone through this process myself trying to get films made and done and how much of a problem it is to have that happen, I thought I could help him with that, I thought I could help protect him from the forces of evil and let him focus on making his film.
Read the rest HERE.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Tim Burton Interview
Tim Burton talked to http://www.fearnet.com about Alice at Comic Con:
What inspired you about Lewis Carroll and Alice?
It's not just the books, it's the characters, songs. There's something about the imagery that he created that still plays in people's minds. Anything that has strong dream-like imagery that stays with you is important to gets into your subconscious and creative thinking. I hadn't seen any movie version that I really liked, so the intent was to take that imagery and turn it into a movie… Every character's weird, but I tried to give them each their own specific weirdness, so that they're all different. All those characters in his imagery sort of indicate some type of mental weirdness that everybody goes through, but the real attempt was to try to make Alice feel more like a story, as opposed to a series of events.
What drew you to this narrative?
It's a fairly universal concept, these kinds of stories, like Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland. It's an internal journey. These characters represent things inside the human psyche. So that's what every child does – you try to work out your problems as you go along. Same as an adult. Some people get therapy, some people make movies.
Is this your first time at Comic-Con?
I came when I was a student. There were like fifty people and a bad slide show. So this is a whole amazing, different thing.
Read the rest HERE.
What inspired you about Lewis Carroll and Alice?
It's not just the books, it's the characters, songs. There's something about the imagery that he created that still plays in people's minds. Anything that has strong dream-like imagery that stays with you is important to gets into your subconscious and creative thinking. I hadn't seen any movie version that I really liked, so the intent was to take that imagery and turn it into a movie… Every character's weird, but I tried to give them each their own specific weirdness, so that they're all different. All those characters in his imagery sort of indicate some type of mental weirdness that everybody goes through, but the real attempt was to try to make Alice feel more like a story, as opposed to a series of events.
What drew you to this narrative?
It's a fairly universal concept, these kinds of stories, like Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland. It's an internal journey. These characters represent things inside the human psyche. So that's what every child does – you try to work out your problems as you go along. Same as an adult. Some people get therapy, some people make movies.
Is this your first time at Comic-Con?
I came when I was a student. There were like fifty people and a bad slide show. So this is a whole amazing, different thing.
Read the rest HERE.
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