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Tim Burton's SLEEPY HOLLOW... a Hammer film'
Well folks, I don't know how much this is going to mean to some of you, but for me... this little tidbit got me foaming at the mouth. The idea that Tim Burton set out to shoot this movie in a HAMMER film style... well, that's just one of them there fantastic gleegasms that excites me.
What does HAMMER film style mean?
Alright, a brief little history lesson for those of you that are not familiar with this, the second age of horror. (My point of view, not history's) I imagine almost all of you are familiar with the classic Universal Horror films from the thirties and forties. Well beginning in the 1950's a british production entity known as HAMMER FILMS began making these horror films. They really took off with THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in 1957. Directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, they began the process of remaking the long and historic run of uber-cool movies. From FRANKENSTEIN to the amazing DRACULA series to THE MUMMY to the QUATERMASS films... Hammer created a look and atmosphere that you could just instantly feel the creaking of the boards and the howling of the wind. It was an auteur studio, producing fantastic horror films that.... Well ROCK! My main hope is that we get a James Bernard style score from Danny Elfman. Or the breathless sense of adventure or the feeling of doom.... Oh man, this could be sooooooo cooooooool!!!
Alright, a brief little history lesson for those of you that are not familiar with this, the second age of horror. (My point of view, not history's) I imagine almost all of you are familiar with the classic Universal Horror films from the thirties and forties. Well beginning in the 1950's a british production entity known as HAMMER FILMS began making these horror films. They really took off with THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in 1957. Directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, they began the process of remaking the long and historic run of uber-cool movies. From FRANKENSTEIN to the amazing DRACULA series to THE MUMMY to the QUATERMASS films... Hammer created a look and atmosphere that you could just instantly feel the creaking of the boards and the howling of the wind. It was an auteur studio, producing fantastic horror films that.... Well ROCK! My main hope is that we get a James Bernard style score from Danny Elfman. Or the breathless sense of adventure or the feeling of doom.... Oh man, this could be sooooooo cooooooool!!!
Il Matto here. Friday night on Craig Kilborn's show, Christina Ricci said
that Sleepy Hollow is in the style of the Hammer horror films, and that she
plays the role of the American actress with the bad British accent. While
she declined to speak in that accent, she did mention that the over the top
dialogue includes such lines as "I rue the day I met you!"
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Here's hoping this is 7 Brothers vs Dracula cool.
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Let's just hope that jack-off Rosie O'Donnell does fart near this thing and kill it!
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From memory, in the book Burton On Burton, he talks about how he would love to watch the Hammer Horrors as a kid. And so here we see a continuation of his recent trend (with Ed Wood and Mars Attacks!) of paying tribute to those movie makers and styles that inspired him in his formative years. This will be one very good film. Anything done by Mr Burton is a must-see. The man has some of the most wonderful visuals I have ever seen. He manages to make these fiercely individual artistic films in the midst of the Hollywood studio system. And you've got to love him for that. And Christina Ricci in a Tim Burton film - Finally. Last year, I got to see her in a Gilliam film. This year, Burton. Two of my favourite directors, and one of the most interesting actresses around. Very cool.
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Man, he'll do great with this. I remember Saturday afternoon sci-fi on my local TV station, and they would play some Hammer films and I would groove on them. (Yeah, I know Hammer ain't sci-fi, but they played pretty much anything as long as it wasn't that mainstream.) This'll be great. No worries.
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I first thought that M.C. Hammer had a role in this film. Tim would do something crazy like that. This film is going to be really cool, and it's always a treat to see horror done right.
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This post just ups the coolness factor in SLEEPY HOLLOW. Tim Burton shooting Hammer style? How cool is that? Hammer Films always meant quality. The first one I saw, HORROR OF DRACULA, scared the hell out of me (hey, I was eight). Up until then, the only vampire I knew was Bela Lugosi. To me, Lugosi WAS Dracula. Until I saw Christopher Lee's animalistic performance. This film was so gruesome to my eight-year-old eyes, that I had to turn the TV off right before the climax. After that, I was hooked. I scoured the TV Guide looking for anything Hammer, and was introduced to its Gothic eye-filling style. Unfortunately, the studio ceased to exist around 1976 or so (a year after I was born), churning out at least one more masterpiece, CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER, before calling it quits (although I have heard rumors that the studio may soon be back in production). I can't wait for SLEEPY HOLLOW. I knew it was in good hands when Tim Burton signed on, and if anyone knows how to make a Hammer-style horror film, it is definitely this great director.
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So Tim Burton's trying to make SLEEPY HOLLOW like an old-time Hammer film? Yeah, right. That arrogant hack couldn't even come close to those old Hammer flicks if his life depended on it. Those films had class. Burton's all ego and ineptness; quality is totally alien to him. If he tries to pay "homage" to those old films, he'll just wind up insulting them because he's such a horrid director. And his partner in one-note hackdom Danny Elfman couldn't even begin to compare to James Bernard.
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Sleepy Hollow sounds really cool, but I was wondering why Christina Ricci's character would need a British accent in the first place, since the movie takes place in New York.
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The problem is the average Joe Starwars types won't see the humor and it will do a Mars Attacks, i.e. flop like a dying fish.
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What is Burton thinking? Doesn't he want anybody to see his movies? This 50's thing of his is driving me crazy. Tim - you once had a style of your own. Why do you keep on plagerizing? Let's face it, people, Burton peaked in 92' with his masterpiece, Batman Returns, a movie completely his own. A movie with style AND substance. Mars Attacks sucked. deal with it, sports fans. It was an occasionally beautiful but totally empty flick; lots of nastiness, no soul. If Burton wants to make another self-indulgent in-joke, fine by me. I'll see it on video, just like everybody else.
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Actually, in retrospect, the screenplay reads a little like a Hammer film. I mean, it walks the line between "visual excitement" and "over-the-top." It doesn't quite go to the latter... well... once or twice... (as much as Andrew Kevin Walker is willing to do that kind of thing) but still has a modern day film sensibility. I mean that as a good thing.
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(gotta continue the Hammer jokes)
Think about the source material for this... In essence, the story is a bit of pulp fiction / urban legend which happens to be considered a classic simply because it was written before pulp came about. You couldn't do a SERIOUS serious movie off of it - it'd be horrible. Doing it tongue-in-cheek is the only way it could work.
Anyone else wondering how it took Christina Ricci and Burton this long to find each other? Talk about match made in heaven... -
Watching the classic Universal horror films on the big screen this week, it struck me how much Burton outright lifted from the visual style and mood of these films (Bride of Frankenstein in particular). It only makes sense that he would eventually move on to the classics from the 60s and 70s - namely, Hammer films. Groing up in the 70s, Hammer films were what I associated with real scares. No pulling punches. Lots of blood and boobs. To me, their motto always was "Show 'em everything and leave 'em wanting more." Chaney, Lugosi and Karloff were in great movies, but Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (along with Vincent Price) inhabitted my nightmares. Hammer films never truly went over-the-top because they didn't believe there was a top to go over. I highly recommend all the recent DVD releases, especially "7 Golden Vampires" for anyone wishing to learn more about what Harry (and most film historians as well) refer to as the 2nd golden age of horror. And to the dude who said Mars Attacks sucked....what are you, twelve.... MA did fantastic overseas box office, becuase the Euro audiences got the joke; Americans wanted ID5 or some other mediocre action-melodramedy with about as much heart as a Newt Gingrich novel (or The Phantom Menace). If they want shit, let them eat shit, I always say. I'll try and steer clear of the smell. If Burton truly pulls off the flair and fright that Hammer provided, we're looking at a modern masterpiece in the making.
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Actually, I'm 25 and live outside the United States (not Europe, though; at least not technically).I stand by my opinion, although I know that many disagree with mae. Hell, my wife almost called off our wedding because of an argument over Mars Attacks. All I was trying to say is that Burton has the potential to be one of the most original directors out there; instead, he's busy copying other people's styles. In other words, he's a man who could be Scorcese; instead, he's DePalma.
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(sorry kids, but the pun was unavoidable)
Film made Hammer-style? Great. MAKE A NEW TRAILER! Ditch that flash-it-in-your-face trash and come up with something more along the lines of what Moriarty posted a while back. Quiet means creepy.. -
I don't know what I find more disturbing... Tim Burton trying to recreate the Hammer style, or all the MC Hammer references in these posts...
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Tim Burton thinks he's so weird and such an outsider. He's just a clown. Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Ed Wood are his best work. When he "tries" to be weird (Mars Attacks, Vincent) he fails. He should have attended more sci-fi and horror conventions when he was younger (and now too), he would have found some friends and possibly have an inkling of what the fans really like.
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I just hope Christina Ricci is talking out of her cumbersome ass, because the Sleepy Hollow script by Andrew Kevin Walker is gory, dark, nihilistic and entirely humorless, much like Seven. If there is anything ironic or wink-wink about the finished movie I am going to ( a ) cry and ( b ) wring Tim Burton's scrawny neck. From the pictures and posters Harry put up, however, he looks like he's capturing the seething ambience perfectly. But why did he have to cast a squat buxom ultramodern Italian girl in the role of a willowy 18th century colonial maiden? -
Tim goes Hammer style?
Sounds just like what you might expect from him.
And seriously, how can anything go wrong with Tim Burton behind the camera? -
AWWW hell yeah!
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Is just dumb! Every artist makes missteps or flops, it's inevitable part of the creative process. You may like some of his work better than others, it's your taste! As for the Hammer films, there once was a time when I exhausted our local video stores stocks eagerly feasting on their sometimes brillance, sometimes dullardness. I'm guessing Ricci's comments were actually her interpetation, though honestly I haven't seen the interveiw or anything on Sleepy Hollow other than a few posts.-GL-
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To that idiot who said that all Burton does is imitate others, exactly which filmmaker was he imitating when he did "Edward Scissorhands?" Or what about "Beetlejuice?" What film was the PRECEDENT for that. Burton's works are always original. I think someone was confusing Sonnenfeld with Burton. Sonnenfeld is the De Palma to Burton's Scorcese. He even goes so far as to "borrow" Burton's composer (Elfman) and his Production Designer (Bo Welch).
Anyway, I just love all of Burton's films, and I wouldn't worry that the tongue-in-cheek humor would ruin any of the creepiness. Batman Returns in one level is extremely witty, but at the same time is a very dark and nasty story about the freaks of society. And in Mars Attacks I think the humor actually added to the creepiness. If the movie had been serious, it would have never been as fun to watch. The fact that you laughed as these people burned into skeletons was classic dark humor at its finest. Oh and if you think that Burton needs to "go visit more conventions so he can give the fans what they want" you've obviously missed the point of everyone of Burton's films. As one critic said, "His specialty is feeding the audience nightmares that are seem to taste like candy." -
im with jelloboy
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She was cute little Wednesday and then overnight she turned into this fleshy tough girl. I thought she was easing into it with "Casper" and "That Darn Cat," and now there's cleavage and a smoke ring in my face. She's like one of those time-lapse photography plants that grows and rots in like five seconds, only it's a person. Am I the only one disturbed by this??? Oh yeah, "Sleepy Hollow"....who knows, Burton has that dark world-view that could make this either classic horror or a sick stupid joke.
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I saw the show and what Ricci did say is that the the film was going to be more "tongue-in-cheek", in the vein of the Hammer-style Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing horror films; using painted backdrops, etc. She never said that Katrina Van Kassel was a Hollywood actress. Ricci said she used the actresses in the Hammer flicks for inspiration, using their phony British accents for her character. The Hammer films are a sub-genre inside the genre of horror, and Burton is simply using that sub-genre as his template for the movie.
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Holy Hell!!! When did all this anti-Burton speak begin? Outside of a very select few directors out there, Burton stands nearly alone in the making of intelligent, fun cinema. For those of you who don't feel the same way, don't see Sleepy Hollow, I urge you. Go rent one of those steaming logs done by Cameron. You'll enjoy yourself much more.
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Jun 20, 1999 10:15:38 PM CDT
The amount of talent involved in this film is amazing, I can't w
by paragonian
Burton, Kevin-Walker, Elfman, Depp, Ricci, Walken, this movie's gonna be awesome. Some directors and writers deserve to be called hacks cause anyone can see (Williamson, Sommers, Goldsman) that they are but sometimes it goes way to far and calling Burton one is just over the line. You gotta admit liking at least one of his films and admit he does have a lot of talent. I'm sure that there is no one safe from some of these asshole talkbackers though and they just waste time by airing their warped and obviously biased comments.
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Okay, I'll spell this one out for those that missed it. I've read several people griping about the characters in Mars Attacks! You weren't SUPPOSED to like them. Burton did *not* care in the least about most of them. All of the stupid and\or self-serving people died, and only the few who were decent people survived. People assumed that just because it was Glenn Close and Jack Nicholson, we were supposed to care about them. We weren't. The European audiences got this, and the American ones didn't because of all the smarmy "everyone lives" disaster movies that have come out as of late. You were supposed to be all but rooting for the Martians. (hell, I was expecting a Dr. Strangelove ending to match the rest of it)
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If you don't think Tim Burton has made a good film....then why the hell are you gonna go see SLEEPY HOLLOW....obviously if he can't make a good film, (as you put it) then what would change about this one...face it jello...you know he is good...you just can't admit it....Ricci is not playing a hollywood actress or any actress for that matter....Burton is one talented filmmaker and he knows his shit. He has not made a bad film. period. I am tired of all the wanna-be-film-geeks using the word...HACK...half of you dipshits don't have a clue with what it means...so stop using it...if you don't like a filmmaker, that doesn't automatically make him a HACK...find a new word of the week. you bore me.
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There's a certain degree of hammerliness recquired to qualify as a Hammer- style movie. It usually involves posh Brits, a black coach running through the woods, frightful peasants and girls in a transparent sleeping dress.
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Magenta, who also thinks Burton should finish his films 5 minutes before spoiling the ending. -
Sory couldn't resist favourite Bob tune, the script is great fun and Burton is a visual master, after reading it and looking at Burtons track record the Hammer vibe was bound to happen. Personally can't wait as he is one of the few true indviduals making multiplex movies.
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Burton couldn't make an intelligent film if his life depended on it. His films are plotless, pointless, tasteless, and they reek of egomania. Burton fancies himself a visionary and a subversive genius, but in reality he's just an arrogant twit with no concept of respect for the material he's working from, and he has no concept of quality. Burton's films don't fail because the audience doesn't "understand" them, they fail becaue they're bad movies. He's repetitive and stagnant; every film he makes is exactly like the last one he made. He has no range. And he's not even good at what he DOES do. The fastest way to kill a movie before it even gets off the ground is to let Burton direct it. That's why all he past movies have been bad, that's why SUPERMAN LIVES is in the toilet, and that's why SLEEPY HOLLOW will suck.
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Gee, I guess I'm not much of a movie fan. My favorite directors include Brian De Palma, Tim Burton, Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Roger Corman, and Martin Scorsese. But according to many people in these Talkbacks, these guys are "hacks." Thanks for opening up my eyes, guys. You saved me from wasting my time on their movies. I think I'll make a list of my NEW favorite directors. Let's see...Michael Bay...James Cameron...that dude who directed RINGMASTER...the guy who made that TV movie about the father who has a crush on his daughter's classmate...
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...is coming to this thread expecting to see actual discussion of a Tim Burton movie, and finding the likes of King Krypton, Jelloboy, and TheMalcontent baiting the actual fans with snide offhand insults. No one has explained just why they do not think Tim Burton is talented, or even why they don't like his movies.
Allesan makes a specific complaint about plagiarism, but doesn't say which specific works he believes Burton has plagiarized. May I remind everyone here that plagiarism is a serious legal charge, representing another's work as one's own? Pastiche, homage, and parody are not plagiarism. Storytelling in a genre that has been used before, such as Western, detective story, or ghost story, is not plagiarism. Adapting an existing work for another medium, with prior permission of the copyright-holder, is not plagiarism. Neither is writing music using keys, time signatures, and methods of notation that have been already used by other composers.
TheMalcontent further expects to impress us by insulting Christina Ricci's physique and Tim Burton's neck; what does that have to do with acting and directing? It's irrelevant, it's immature, and it's not at all clever. What's more, threatening to wring *anyone's* neck is illegal whether you do it in person, in print, or on line.
And on top of everything else, I see that CreatorOLunacy has polluted yet another discussion with scatological drivel. Whoever is running this BBS, you have this person's password, you have this person's email address; isn't the whole purpose of registering for a BBS to weed out nuisances of this kind?
What is it about Burton's movies and Elfman's music that moves people who don't understand them (and can't be bothered to try) to post immature and inaccurate nonsense and obscenities? Why do these people bother? FilmScoreMonthly and MFADP have had similar problems with mindless posts and nuisance posts, and there's a dreary sameness about most of them. Odd how people accusing other people of unoriginality manage to all sound alike.
Tim Burton and Danny Elfman gave us the incredibly moving "Edward Scissorhands", Batman as he should be (dark and brooding), and the subversive fun of "Beetlejuice" and "Mars Attacks". Tim Burton made a respectful biography of Ed Wood (and B -
If Burton's films are so very low in quality, then why have they continuously been nominated for Academy Awards?
If it's anyone's arrogance you want to be commenting on, it might be your own....
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I am an independent filmmaker who has recently finished my first feature film. I have been a fan of Burton's work since 'Edward Scissorhands' and have continued to enjoy, admire, and respect his talent, vision, and creative. That he could get 20th Century Fox to produce Scissorhands is remarkable. In that arena alone he is truly a genius. After going through the process of writing, producing, directing and editing my own film I have come to respect Burton, and all filmmakers, so much more. Making a film is not easy. Making a good film is near impossible. The biggest problem I see in this country today is that too many people have too many opinions. We have become a nation of talkers, and not doers. It is all too easy to condemn and insult someone who puts their ideas and dreams on the line. They are targets. But to have the audacity some of you out there have in slinging insults at someone is appaling. Write a script. Cast your actors. Lock down your locations. Hire your cinematographer and your sound designer. Direct, Edit, and write the music for you film-- then, and only then, will you have the right to hurl insults. Regardless, I am looking forward to Sleepy Hollow. It very well may be Burton's best.
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I have always loved Tim Burton, I always felt that he was much a freak like I was in high school talking about things and people like Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Hammer films and having people look at me like "What the hell are you talking about?!" It is so great to see someone who loved the same things as I did growing up living out a dream and paying homage to the great underappreciated Hammer legacy. Now if we could only get Tim to make a vampire movie...
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I saw some of these comments and I just have a few things to say, to correct all of you. Okay, on June 28th Christina Ricci was on the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. On the show she said, (and I will quote her) "Well, a lot of the movie is tongue in cheek. it's sort of formulatated actor (as in) Hammer horror films. Which is sort painted back drops and bad makeup. So a lot of it is tongue and cheek. So I'm basically the American actress with the really bad British accent. " She NEVER said that this was a hammer horror film, she was just giving HER perspective. Also, for all of you who are screwed up out there and do not know how to read and comprehend what you're reading, NO, NO PERSONS BY THE NAME OF "HAMMER" WILL BE IN THE MOVIE SLEEPY HOLLOW! Also, don't put Burton down you bunch of tight-assed morons. He screws up and makes mistakes like the rest of us, he's no exception. He just happens to have made some of his with movies that he wrote or directed. Screenwriting is tough work, believe me, I wrote a 90 page screenplay and it's difficult, especially to have the thoughts in your head of "how can I please all of those assholes out there who do nothing but criticize. What will interest them and will be funny, sad, nerve-racking, and make you want to feel empathy for the main character(s)? (which belive me folks in no matter what movie you see this always happens) Some of you are saying that Burton is not origional, he doesn't have any fo his won ideas and blah blah fucking blah. Well, then I'm wondering what the fuck you people would say about those people to take perfectly good books, make them into movies and turn the into shit?! Just take the book and movie "The Simple Plan" for example. It was a really good book, but then they changed the whole god damn thing so that it was nothing like the book, made it into a movie and then it sucked. The same thing happened with the book, Mommie Dearest, which was very heart-wrenchng true life story and just made me want to rip Joan Crawfords head off and burn her at the stake for the evil bitch that she was (if you have read it then you will know exactly what I am talking about)
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