Maaaaaaaaaaaaan, me wanna see that there SLEEPY HOLLOW set. I'm trying my hardest to draw a mental picture of it. I'm trying and trying and trying. Ewwwwwww me wanna snap shot panoramic uper dooper lenticular picture-thingee of it. Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhh. Folks, I'm sorry, I so love the SLEEPY HOLLOW script and the production design that TIM BURTON is noted for applied to this project. I am pulling for absolute top of the line brilliance on this project. Sigh.... hurry hurry hurry hurry. SPIES, stay on the case, we Burton geeks are dying!@!!!
Holly Martins here. Now Harry, I know how much you want to get something big on Sleepy Hollow, and, well, I'm afraid I haven't got anything big. But, I can say that I was on the Sleepy Hollow set at Sheperton last week, and it is totally cool.
Let me explain. I was over at Sheperton Studios doing some work on the new Cleopatra movie. It's taken over six huge sound stages, and, well it looks pretty big. Some of the temples they've created are abosutely huge, and with the fake perspective they're using, it really is impressive stuff.
Anyway, I read on your site that Tim Burton is shooting Sleepy Hollow at Sheperton. Well you wouldn't know it! Anyway, I do some detective work, and find that they have got stage H - the biggest stage at Sheperton. They've also got an office over at studio J. But that's it! No workshops, no art studios, no FX shops, nothing! Or at least I couldn't find any. So I snoop around their office, and, well there's nothing! No storyboards on the wall, no models, no spare scripts lying around. Zilch. I try chatting to one of the PAs, but their mouths are so tightly sealed, you wouldn't believe it!
Finally I check out Studio H, expecting there to be a security presence. There isn't and I manage to walk right on set. I was there the day before they started filming (they shoot from the 5th) and, boy does it look impressive. Imagine the old scary forrest you used to hang out in as a kid. Imagine digging this whole forrest up: trees, hills and all - and planting it in the middle of a studio. Well that's sort of what it was like. But better. You see whilst I was convinced that it was real, there was something un-real about it. You know the opening shot of Beetlejuice - the way there is something unsettling about the landscape? Well that's just what they'd got here. The trees were devoid of leaves, and were painted in such a way to look quite ghostly. The back drops were all quite impressionistic, and mainly monochrome. The more you looked at this forrest, the more unsettling it became.
Anyway, I searched around the edge of the set, hoping to find the odd script lying around. Unfortunately I didn't, but I did see a full production list, which confirmed that Burton is making it for Paramount, and that Scott 'Truman Show' Rudin is producing. The production list was headed 'England Shoot', so I imagine that Burton is only shooting a few bits of the film over here. Perhaps the rest is on location?
Anyway, whilst I was at Sheperton I took some time out to chat to the people working on Oklahoma!. Trevor Nunn (director of Cats, Les Miserables, etc) directed it at the National Theatre earlier this year, and it was a big hit. Now Sky is funding the filming of it. I'm not sure if it will get a theatrical release, but it is being shot on 35mm, so it's possible. I've seen his production, and it's great, but apprently the filming isn't going so well. Already badly behind schedule, the word on the rushes is poor. Apparently it just doesn't film well, but the standard of singing, dancing, acting is so good, that it still sort of works.
Finally, after all the hoo-ha about Nicole Kidman's stage debut at the Donmar Warehouse in London, I have it from a very good source that Tom Cruise is close to following in her footsteps at the same theatre. I haven't the faintest idea which play it will be, but he apparently is 'as good as signed' to make a stage debut in the 250 seater theatre.
That's all for now, Harry.
