Frankenweenie

Post by **Josh** » September 29th, 2007, 5:14 pm

Regarding todays news that Disney is working on a stop-motion film, who do you guys think the mysterious 'creative mastermind behind the majority of stop-motion pictures in the last decade' is?

Post by **EricJ** » September 29th, 2007, 7:31 pm

If they'd meant Tim Burton (as AICN is obsessed with thinking they did), they would've said Tim Burton, as there'd be no problem with the Nightmare Before Xmas plug...
Not as many people remember that NBX was technically a Henry Selick film, though, and saying "From the director of 'James & the Giant Peach' and 'Monkeybone'" just doesn't have the same ring, somehow.

It's what they're strategically not saying that has everyone suspicious.
(Unless they grabbed up Mike Johnson, after Tim hogged all the credit for "Corpse Bride" too, but Johnson doesn't seem that much of a "majority".)

Then again, Aardman is also looking for a new home, after their Dreamworks divorce...

Post by **Prince Kido** » September 29th, 2007, 7:38 pm

What i can personnaly say today is that i heard from the last Disney conference at the french Festival at Annecy last june that Disney could make a stop-motion movie and they said that at Disney studios everyone admire Nightmare Before Chrismas so much and, not sure about that, but someone asked if it could be a sequel and the answer was that they'd love it so much but they would have to convince Tim Burton to make it eventually and one Disney people said "but shhhhhhh....." and this sentence with the finger's gesture to the mouth to make silence gave me that clue!!

So maybe this will be a Tim Burton stop-motion one and i won't be surprised of this so! More because Nightmare Before Chrismas is a huge Disney license in the world!

More, Cook said there will be more to come in nearly one mouth and ,oh surprise, will come in theatres at the same release time the Digital 3D Nightmare Before Chrismas' re-release in cinemas!!! héhé!! ;p
What do you think of that? (sorry for my english anyway...).

Post by **ShyViolet** » September 29th, 2007, 8:02 pm

Then again, Aardman is also looking for a new home, after their Dreamworks divorce...

Actually, I think Sony (also the makers of Surf's Up) are distributing them now, although they're still based in England and it's a much more "laissez faire" type of relationship.

Post by **Ben** » September 30th, 2007, 9:54 am

Yep, Aardman at Sony.

This could be Burton either way. I think Selick could well still be tied up on Coraline, but this could be an announcement for something after that.

It's clearly Burton or Selick, both of whom have the same amount of stop-mo credits (Burton's on Nightmare, Peach and Corpse; Selick on Nightmare, Peach, Monkeybone).

But only the last ones of each were in the last decade. There have been hardly any stop-mo features in the last decade aside from Corpse, Monekybone (questionable as a stop-mo feature, more a live-action film with stop-mo FX) and a pair of Aardmans.

I think it could be Burton producing another Johnson film. It won't be Mike Johnson on his own.

So...simply, it's going to be someone with a Nightmare connection. Could it be the sequel we've heard rumors about since the video game came out a couple of years ago? I know that was a starting point to generating ideas to put on film. As David says above, it wouldn't be a conikidink that Nightmare is getting its second annual 3D reissue and would provide the perfect platform to make an announcement to the right kind of enthusiastic crowds.

Post by **EricJ** » September 30th, 2007, 3:17 pm

Ben wrote:So...simply, it's going to be someone with a Nightmare connection. Could it be the sequel we've heard rumors about since the video game came out a couple of years ago? I know that was a starting point to generating ideas to put on film. As David says above, it wouldn't be a conikidink that Nightmare is getting its second annual 3D reissue and would provide the perfect platform to make an announcement to the right kind of enthusiastic crowds.

There's some coinkidink, not to mention a victim of soicumstance:
1) Disney buys up Real-3D and hopes we'll all rush to Chicken Little,
2) Between gigs, Disney wants to beat George Lucas to the punch and start the "Converted re-release" craze,
3) Before anyone can figure out how to convert 2-D animation, most experimenets decide to stay with "safe" already-solid 3D-CGI and object-animated films to add depth to,
4) NBX-3D becomes a surprise draw during its first year, and since there's already few enough IMAX/3-D films already during the year, they decide to make it a "tradition" to fill up space (see related entries on "Santa vs. the Snowman")...

So, it is probably "Somebody who worked for Burton", but let's not read too much Nightmare into it--
Besides, rumors have it that Burton wants to reassert his own ownership of NBX outside of Disney, now that he's more able to market himself than he was ten years ago...Whereas the more weird and less mainstream Selick cannot, and Disney can still pick him up for a bargain.

Post by **Josh** » October 1st, 2007, 4:41 am

Here's an interesting twist to the mystery...

http://www.animated-news.com/2007/frank ... surrected/

Post by **Ben** » October 1st, 2007, 6:22 am

That would somewhat make sense. Interesting if true...I could see Frankenweenie stretched out. Wonder if it would be an Elfman musical?

Mike Johnson to direct?

Post by **EricJ** » October 1st, 2007, 2:13 pm

Probably, and not in the good way--
One of my complaints with "Corpse Bride" was that Burton came onto Johnson's film as a rewrite...And it looked like Warner got name-happy at the sound of "Tim Burton" and "Stop-motion" and too forcibly tried to shoehorn it into a NBX2.

But Elman's score on NBX1 just seemed to work so right the first time, it was like trying to make lightning strike twice.
And knowing Disney, they'll keep plugging away at that static-electricity generator until they can do it.