Tim Burton Says He Will Never Work in the "Horrible Big Circus" That Is Disney Ever Again
Tim Burton has a long history with Disney, making huge hits like the 1993 Halloween/Christmas phenomenon The Nightmare Before Christmas; 1996's James and the Giant Peach; 2009's Alice in Wonderland and its 2016 sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass; 2012's Frankenweenie; and most recently, the beautiful live-action remake of the Disney classic Dumbo. Burton’s films have fared well for Disney, but while the director is happy with those projects, he is pretty sure he won’t be returning to the company for anything in the future.
While appearing in a press conference at the Lumière Festival in Lyon where he received its prestigious Prix Lumière, Burton talked about his long relationship with Disney, where he began his career as a young animation artist. He suggested that while occasional, under-the-radar individual projects might find a place at the studio, it was now mainly focused on Marvel, Pixar and Stars Wars franchises.
“It’s gotten to be very homogenized, very consolidated. There’s less room for different types of things,” he said, adding he would never do a Marvel movie. “I can only deal with one universe, l can’t deal with a multi-universe.”
Burton said it was unlikely he would be returning to work with Disney any time soon following his experiences on his 2019 live-action reboot of Dumbo.
“My history is that I started out there. I was hired and fired like several times throughout my career there. The thing about Dumbo, is that’s why I think my days with Disney are done, I realized that I was Dumbo, that I was working in this horrible big circus and I needed to escape. That movie is quite autobiographical at a certain level.”
That’s a bummer to hear. I like Burton’s take on the Disney movies he has made. But there’s no shortage of other stories for him to tell, and there are plenty of studios that would welcome him with open arms. So this news doesn’t mean he’s gone for good, and it sounds like he’s still interested in making his style of dark and quirky films he always has.
via: Deadline