Tim Burton Talks “Strange Phenomenon” Of Studio Career, Connection With Johnny Depp & ‘House Of Wax’ Musical With Michael Jackson That Got Away – Lumière Festival
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Tim Burton described his career working uniquely with the Hollywood studios as a “strange phenomenon” in a masterclass at the Lumière Festival in Lyon on Friday.
The Batman, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Alice In Wonderland director is being feted on Friday with the prestigious Prix Lumiere of the festival, spearheaded by Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux in his other role of director of the Institut Lumiere.
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“I started out as an animator at Disney and made a couple of short films and then from my first film, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, I only worked with studios,” he said.
“I was a strange phenomenon in a way. I had some kind of independence, basically because they didn’t understand what I was doing, but still, I manoeuvred my way, not through independent film, but through the studios.”
Nevertheless, Burton lamented the passing of the more independently spirit of the New Hollywood era of the 1960s and 70s.
“In the 1970s, there was a lot more experimentation and freedom. It was a time when people like Scorsese, could make more independent-style films. What happened was that once the idea of the blockbuster came out, there was much more focus on business,” he said.
“When I first did Batman, I’d never heard of the word ‘franchise’,” he continued, referring to his 1989 reboot. “After that, it became something else.”
Frémaux quizzed Burton on the role he had played in helping to usher in the current era of superhero franchises with Batman and its 1992 sequel Batman Returns, which put him at odds with the studios for its dark tone.
“It did feel very exciting to be at the beginning of all of it. It’s amazing how much it hasn’t really changed in a sense – the tortured superhero, weird costumes – but for me, at the time it was very exciting. It felt new,” he said.
“The thing that is funny about it now is, people go ‘What do you think of the new Batman?’ and I start laughing and crying because I go back to a time capsule, where pretty much every day the studios were saying, ‘It’s too dark, it’s too dark’. Now it looks like a lighthearted romp.”
Burton also discussed some of the acting talents he had worked with along the way, and in particular his special connection with Johnny Depp.
“I first met him when I did Edward Scissorhands. He was a bit similar to me, kind of suburban, white trash, whatever – we connected on some kind of level,” said Burton.
“It wasn’t even a verbal understanding, it was just somebody I could feel liked to do characters, who was interested in acting for the art of it and not so much for the business of it. He was somebody who would play Scissorhands or Edward [in Edward Wood] and all these different things,” he said.
“That’s always exciting to see someone play different things rather than being one thing from one film to another and his transformation from film to film has always excited me.”
Burton revealed that alongside his many successes he had had plenty of frustrations in terms of getting projects off the ground along the way.
“I have worked for several months on things that got rejected,” he added.
One project that go away he revealed was a musical version of the slasher movie House Of Wax with Michael Jackson.
“They said ‘no’. Can you believe that?” he said with a laugh, adding that Jackson had been the only one truly on board.
The filmmaker has just come off Netflix’s The Addams Family spin-off series Wednesday, which comes out in November.
Having not made a feature since his 2019 live-action Dumbo reboot, Burton suggested it was getting longer to get his projects off the ground with the studios than in the past.
“It has gotten a lot harder,” he said. “I’ve been around for a long time. Studios used to be run by people who had made movies, or at least had some connection to it, but then it was taken over by business and lawyers so people who don’t really understand or have a feel for film.”
“Although I am noticing people back in the studios who have made movies so there are some promising signs.”
Burton said he had stepped back during the pandemic.
“The pandemic really happened around the same time as when the studios said they were moving to streaming. I felt movies were in a weird transitionary time and people didn’t know what to do, what to make and the studios were very frozen,” he said.
“I did step back a little bit and worked on thoughts and ideas but it’s such an important thing that the next thing I do I really need to feel means something to me. Something happened with the industry but I am ready to go back in there.”
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