With perhaps the silliest title since HOPE FLOATS, perennial goth-filmmaker Tim Burton has ascertained his follow up project to ALICE IN WONDERLAND. He will indeed embark on FRANKENWEENIE as his next project, one also newly slated for a 2011 theatrical boost.
For those in the know not, FRANKENWEENIE harks way back to the prior-PEE WEE days when Burton was just a starving-artist toiling in obscurity (1984). The 29-minute project was actually a live-action short film about the pet dog of a kid scientist who gets decked by a car, reanimates FRANKENSTEIN style, then wreaks terror among the townsfolk. Shelly Duvall (below) and Daniel Stern starred as the kid’s parents.
Well, word is Burton is keen on revisiting the WEENIE and directing the story using stop motion animation instead of its live-action predecessor. Speaking of, the short from which this new version is adapted, cannot be bought/seen on its own, but has been recently made available on the Special Edition & Blu-ray version of A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS.
No casting details have poured out yet, but I’m laying 2:1 odds my man Big John Depp lends some voice work. Who do you all see in the Duvall/Stern roles?