Johnny appears in Burton Docuseries

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SnoopyDances
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Johnny appears in Burton Docuseries

Unread post by SnoopyDances » Thu Jun 13, 2024 8:34 am

New Tim Burton Docuseries Debuts At Tribeca Film Festival

Johnny Depp, Michael Keaton and Jenna Ortega are among the stars featured in a new docuseries about Tim Burton premiering Monday evening at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

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Tim Lammers
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Johnny Depp, Michael Keaton and Jenna Ortega are among the stars featured in a new docuseries on Tim Burton that is premiering Monday evening at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

Part one of the four-part documentary—which is currently called Untitled Tim Burton Docuseries—will screen at Tribeca Monday night.

Directed by Tara Wood, the official Tribeca logline for the docuseries reads, “Follow Tim Burton’s dream journey into the themes and relationships that shape his work, from the Misunderstood Monster to the dichotomy of dark vs light and the magic of collaboration with fellow ‘outsiders’ Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Helena Bonham Carter and more.”

Wood is scheduled to participate in a conversation about the docuseries after the Tribeca screening.

Other actors featured in the expansive project include Burton collaborators Danny DeVito, Christoph Waltz and Mia Wasikowska.

In addition, Burton’s frequent composer Danny Elfman is featured in the Wood’s chronicle of the filmmaker’s work, as well as Derek Frey—who has produced several of the director’s films including Dumbo, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Frankenweenie, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Corpse Bride.

“I'm honored and excited to be part of this long-overdue definitive docuseries on Tim Burton's amazing career … I can't wait for everyone to experience the wonderful labor of love director Tara Wood has created,” Frey said in a post on X Monday.

Depp Honors Burton For Fighting For Him At The Beginning

The Untitled Tim Burton Docuseries first went to market at the Cannes Film Festival last month, Deadline reported. The trade publication says the four-part documentary will include never-before-seen footage.

In a press release about the film, per Deadline, director Tara Wood says, “In the making of this doc, Tim’s creative family, a gaggle of creative genius, met me with open hearts and enthusiasm to share their profound insights into Tim’s unique, magical world. And it has been a truly inspiring, joyous and life-changing experience. Whatever you do or where you come from, Tim’s story will inspire you.”

Wood is no stranger to directing documentaries on filmmakers. Her credits include 2019’s Quentin Tarantino QT8: The First Eight and 2014’s 21 Years: Richard Linklater.

Depp paid tribute in a statement about Untitled Tim Burton Docuseries, noting, “The most important filmmaker who changed my life completely is Tim. In the very beginning, he’s the guy that fought for me.”

Burton first directed Depp in Edward Scissorhands and also collaborated with the filmmaker on Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows.

Burton’s long-awaited sequel—Beetlejuice Beetlejuice—is set to debut in theaters on September 6. The film reunited Burton with his 1988 Beetlejuice star Michael Keaton, who previously teamed with the director on Batman, Batman Returns and Dumbo.

Burton is currently at work on the second season of the Netflix blockbuster series Wednesday.

There is no word yet on the release of Untitled Tim Burton Documentary.

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Johnny appears in Burton Docuseries

Unread post by In-too-Depp » Thu Jun 13, 2024 12:38 pm

Thanks Snoopy, should be an interesting one to watch.
And Wit, was his vain frivolous pretence
Of pleasing others, at his own expense

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Johnny appears in Burton Docuseries

Unread post by SnoopyDances » Wed Jun 19, 2024 12:05 pm

Apparently, this will be a 4-part documentary series as yet untitled with no release date. Not sure if it will run in theaters or stream somewhere. Only the first part was screened at Tribeca and that featured mostly Christopher Walken.

Here is a review from Deadline.
‘Tim Burton Untitled Docuseries’ Review: An Insightful Portrayal Of Hollywood’s Gothic Disruptor – Tribeca Film Festival'



By Damon Wise
This four-part, so-far-untitled documentary series about the rise and rise of Hollywood’s least likely marquee-name director starts out with a tribute from Christopher Walken that will be very hard for the next three instalments to match. In that inimitable… sta-cc-a-to… WAY… of his, the Sleepy Hollow star recalls his former dance teacher saying to him: “Chris, show me something I never saw before. And that’s what Tim does. Every time.”

That, by any metric, is a high bar, and, for the first hour of this docuseries at least, the hyperbole is justified: Whether Tim Burton’s 39-year career in feature films — one imagines the imminent release of Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice must have scuppered the nice, round 40 — will keep viewers glued to the next three is another matter. But while Tara Wood’s documentary is clearly in the director’s corner, it does, convincingly, chart the most unlikely of outsiders’ rise to the top without ever rewriting history to reframe it as a jolly David and Goliath story — in fact, it’s pretty much in your face about that. This, after all, is the guy who, as a kid, idly doodled the Spoodle (half spider, half poodle), and whose art teacher at school, though she cheered him on, might have been a little daunted by his macabre creativity (“Everything you can’t imagine, he drew”).

For those who checked out of the increasingly mannered, style-over-script Burton universe that set in after Planet of the Apes (2001), Wood’s doc is a welcome reminder of how much of a disruptor he was back in the day. Born in sunny Burbank, 1958, under the least Gothic of circumstances, Burton fought the inclement fortune of a polite, suburban existence in a way that now seems even stranger than it might have done at the time. His acting appearances in his Super-8 shorts (a memorable one finds him being eaten alive by a beanbag) may now seem at odds with his camera-shy reputation, but his future as a director starts to make more sense with his growing confidence as an animator, notably with his 1979 student film Stalk of the Celery Monster.

What happened to Burton next must surely be a doc in the making, if not about him per se but about the culture at Walt Disney Productions, where he was almost immediately hired as an apprentice. After Walt died in 1966, the middle managers moved in, and the animation department had been stifled ever since. Burton himself isn’t a voice in this episode (aside from archive), but Helena Bonham Carter speaks for him, saying, “He hated his time at Disney.” It’s clear, though, that he was inspired there. We hear of The Nine Old Men, who worked with Disney from the ’20s to the ’80s, and, despite the age gap, were every bit as frustrated as Burton was. In any case, the Disney years are a weird period in his resumé, since, for all his complaints, they did bankroll his calling-card films, Vincent (1982) and Frankenweenie (1984).

In short order, this gets us to his late-’80s movie career, starting with Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, then the surprise-hit Beetlejuice, and the almost unimaginable big step-up to Batman. Though there are some candid conversations here — notably from his regular composer Danny Elfman, who also supplies the show’s perfectly all-encompassing title music — we’re now in traditional talking-head doc territory. This, in itself, is no bad thing, especially when former “miserable TV star” (not his own words) Johnny Depp recalls his nervousness upon realizing that he was up against Tom Hanks, Michael Jackson and — most surprising of all — Tom Cruise for Edward Scissorhands. But can it sustain?

It’s hard to judge from one episode, but, if nothing else, Burton is a very good example of a director to follow through the studio system. The auteur theory is practically designed for him; a director who only has story and character credits on his films (so far), and yet you know damn well who made them. For that, at least, a tip of the hat is due — and this docuseries is here for it.

Title: ‘Tim Burton Untitled Docuseries’ (Episode One)
Festival: Tribeca (NOW Special Screening)
Director: Tara Wood
Sales Agent: Fifth Season
Running time: 1hr 5 min