Wednesday, November 16, 2011

A Reel Opinion: Tim Burton Phones it in...



FACT: Tim Burton is in talks to develop a film adaptation of the Ransom Riggs novel “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” for 20th Century Fox. The book follows a 16 year old whose childhood was filled with stories from the orphanage, told to him by his grandfather.

OPINION: If this project does come into Burton’s hands, it will be the 4th film in a row for him that was an adaptation/remake, and the 7th in his last nine times out. Where oh where has the inspired mind that created BEETLEJUICE and EDWARD
SCISSCORHANDS gone to?



Gone seem to be the days when the once-original genius of Burton gave us sights and stories that we had never seen before. Year after year it has been remake after remake after adaptation; all with the same predictable style over and over again that he tries to pass off on us as original. This is a classic case of a successful director getting too comfortable with himself and becoming reluctant to get his ass off the couch of originality.

Burton may want to consider his past as proof of his now lazy ass. In the past when he would become predictable, he would step outside of his own style and the results would be spectacular; ED WOOD and BIG FISH for example. Where is that guy now?

Now, his endless string of adaptations have been moderately successful, and they are entertaining and make enough moolah at the box office to keep the corporate studio stooges happy; but in an age where movie audiences are dying and screaming for something original, Tim Burton used to be the man people looked to for relief. Not anymore.



What say you?

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