"I wanted to play the man in the Godzilla costume"

A blog dedicated to posting little known facts (and sometimes quotes) about Tim Burton's movies as well as Tim himself. It is not meant to infringe upon his personal life in any way, merely to share information that has been previously posted in...

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #36

Mrs.Lovett’s song, “Wait,” was originally cut from the movie, because John Logan, the screenwriter, saw it as more of a slow placeholder song. Tim immediately vetoed this decision and reinstated the song, claiming that “it is the only time in the show that Mrs.Lovett gets to express in a gentle sort of way her affection for Sweeney Todd.”

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #35

Tim Burton often foregoes historical accuracy in order to emphasize the more emotional aspects of his movies. However, he does recall getting frustrated when journalists pointed out that his movie Big Fish included Chinese lettering during scenes that were meant to portray the Korean War. 

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #34

In high school, Tim Burton was once asked to submit a written report on Harry Houdini. Instead, he made a short film with his 8mm camera. He received a B+.

[timburtontrivia]

I've made a burlesque version of the exorcist.

Tim Burton, when asked to describe his film Beetlejuice

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #33

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas used 19 sound stages, had over 300 sets, 200 puppets and required 8 camera crews.

[timburtontrivia]

‘Miss Peregrine’ and Tim Burton: The Making of a Film Fable

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #32

Tim Burton used to have blond hair as a child. He blames it on the combination of swimming in chlorinated pools (on the swim team) and being out in the California sun.

[theballadofmrslovett]

Congratulations to Tim Burton, for receiving prints at The Chinese Theater in Hollywood (9/8/16) after working in the film business for over 30 years. 

[timburtontrivia]

I present to you: Tim Burton on a pony

[timburtontrivia]

Can you believe this little boy is 58 today??

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #31

As a child, Tim Burton would rip the heads off of G.I. Joe action figures and convince the other neighborhood kids that aliens had landed.

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #30

Prior to auditioning for his role of the Headless Horseman in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Christopher Walken was asked if he could ride a horse, to which he lied and said yes. Only after getting the part did he learn how to ride, and even then, some scenes were filmed on a mechanical horse.

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #29

Tim Burton is very fond of the hotel chain the Ritz Carlton, particularly the one in Paris. Helena once referred to this in an interview, calling it “an expensive sleeping pill,” since it’s one of the only places Tim actually sleeps well at due to his insomnia.

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #28

Because the location scouts couldn’t find any existing period houses for Sleepy Hollow, the entire set of the town was built from scratch. Instead of filming in upstate New York like they had originally planned, the production crew settled on building the town of Sleepy Hollow from the ground up in England instead. The town was constructed around a small duck-pond, and each building uniquely fit Tim Burton’s desired aesthetic of a Hammer horror film meeting “colonial-expressionism.”

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #27

Tim Burton’s mother owned and ran a cat-themed gift shop. Tim has mentioned how that, along with the other bizarre suburban decor and art culture influenced him greatly as a child, and attributed to the dissociation he felt with society.

[timburtontrivia]

Fact #26

In Edward Scissorhands, there’s a shot of a supposed prom picture with Kim and Jim. Jim is wearing a bright teal suit, and in the audio commentary, Tim Burton admits to having a very similar suit.

[i-alwayslikedstrangecharacters]

The Nightmare Before Christmas Fact: Disney wanted to make a sequel. Disney is well known for its straight-to-DVD sequels, so it is no surprise that they wanted to make one to such a popular film. Tim Burton had to put his foot down. “I was always very protective of [Nightmare Before Christmas], not to do sequels or things of that kind. You know, ‘Jack visits Thanksgiving world’ or other kinds of things, just because I felt the movie had a purity to it and the people that like it. Because it’s not a mass-market kind of thing, it was important to kind of keep that purity of it. I try to respect people and keep the purity of the project as much as possible.” - Tim Burton.

[timburtontrivia]

Shit, Tim Burton didn't even want to make the Nightmare Before Christmas with Disney in the first place. But because Disney apparently owns the rights to all creative content put forth by it's workers, they owned the rights to Nightmare and wouldn't let Tim produce it with any other studio.

[hbctrivia]

Trivia #9

Johnny Depp is the godfather of Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton’s child, Bill Ray Burton. He was asked by Helena Bonham Carter on the set of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory during filming.