Next week sees the release of Disney's latest offering, and the most recent project from the King of quirk himself - Mr Tim Burton. Frankenweenie tells the charming tale of young Victor Frankenstein, a scientist in the making who upon the death of his beloved dog Sparky, carries out a successful experiment which brings his best friend back to life. For Burton's most personal piece of work to date, he's assembled a cast made up of some of the actors he's had great success with in the past. You won't find Johnny Depp in this film but what you will find is Winona Ryder, Martin Landau, Martin Short and Catherine O'Hara - all of whom have featured in a number of Burtonesque movies.
I was lucky enough to travel to London to catch up the cast and crew, among which a bonafide Hollywood legend was included; Martin Landau. Martin shared many a story, none of which I'll spoil for you here. At 85 years of age, he's lived quite a spectacular life. Certainly a career highlight of mine. Catherine O'Hara and Martin Short were paired for this junket and just so you know, I don't think they were drinking anything, although when watching it, it sure does seem that way. Two mentallers, but lots of fun. I also had the pleasure of meeting award winning producers Allison Babbate and Don Hahn who've worked not only with Tim but also on movies like The Lion King and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Lastly, I got to speak with one of the most celebrated directors working today, Tim Burton. Tim spoke to me about how much like the young Victor he was as a kid, how he feels like he can't win when it comes to working with or not working with the same directors and how he feels as the first person to take a comic book story like Batman and go darker with it.
Frankenweenie hits cinemas on October 17th. Enjoy the interviews!
