Tim Burton is one of the most popular Hollywood directors, who managed to create his own fantastic, sometimes eerie world on the screen and make it interesting for millions of viewers. Almost every year, new works by Barton are released, in which he manages to combine the author's vision with commercial success.
The future famous director studied at the animation department of the California Institute of the Arts, and then worked as an artist at the Walt Disney Studios. All this significantly influenced the work of Barton: his works include extremely original animation films.
The beginning of a director's career
From an early age, Barton tried himself as a director, shooting amateur fiction and animation short films: "The Island of Doctor Agora", "The Doom Doctor", "In the Footsteps of the Celery Monster", "Vincent". In 1982, he filmed on television the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm "Hansel and Gretel" (for some reason, turning a brother and sister into two brothers). The director's last amateur film was Luau - Hawaiian Party, almost unknown to the general public.
In 1984, Barton directed his first feature film, Franquevin, which was to be shown in theaters along with the restored animated film Pinocchio. Despite the fact that, according to Barton himself, on the test screening children screamed with fear only during "Pinocchio", the studio did not dare to release "Frankevin" on the screens, considering it too gloomy and difficult for a children's audience. However, the film attracted the attention of actor Paul Rubens, who suggested that the director make a film based on his script, where Rubens himself was to play the main role. As a result, in 1985, Tim Burton's first feature film, the family comedy Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, appeared.
Way to the top
Barton's true fame begins with the 1988 film Beetlejuice, which bizarrely combines elements of comedy and horror. The title role in the film was played by the wonderful English comedian Michael Keaton, who later became one of Tim Burton's favorite actors. Barton will entrust him with the central role in the films "Batman" (1989) and "Batman Returns" (1992).
In 1990, Burton is working on the eerie gothic fairy tale "Edward Scissorhands", where he first meets Johnny Depp on the set, who later became the leading actor in most of his films. In 1994, they worked together on the film "Ed Wood" about "the worst director of all time", and in 1999 a gothic thriller based on the novel by Washington Irving "Sleepy Hollow" was released.
Barton's appeal to the world of science fiction was marked by the appearance of not the most typical films for him "Mars Attacks!" (1996) and Planet of the Apes (2001).
Influenced by the death of his parents, Barton creates the light-hearted, poignant fantasy film Big Fish, starring Evan McGregor. However, this movie tale for adults turned out to be so atypical for the director that it almost alienated his regular fans.
Subsequent works by Barton: the eerie-ironic fairy tale "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", the cartoon "Corpse Bride" and the unusually dark musical "Swinney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (all with the participation of Johnny Depp) - turned out to be more familiar and quickly returned love and attention of the audience to the director.
In 2010, Tim Burton will film the paradoxical tale of Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland", where the grown-up Alice finds herself in a mysterious world, invented, rather, by Burton himself, and not by Carroll.
In 2012, the vampire story "Dark Shadows" with Johnny Depp in the title role and the animated 3D version of "Frankevin" were released. Barton is currently working on the film Big Eyes about the artist Margaret Keane, starring the charming Amy Adams.
