Following the success of his most recent sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, director Tim Burton spoke about the status of the follow-ups of two of his earlier hits, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. During a Q&A at the Marrakech International Film Festival, the Emmy-winning filmmaker ruled out revisiting the two features, which are among his most beloved projects, IndieWire is reporting.
“There are certain films I don’t want to make a sequel to,” Burton said. “I didn’t want to make a sequel to (Edward Scissorhands) because it felt like a one-off thing. I didn’t want to have a sequel for The Nightmare Before Christmas because it also felt like a one-off thing. Certain things are best left on their own and that for me is one of them.”
The Golden Globe-nominated writer-director was also asked during the Q&A whether he would consider working with his Edward Scissorhands star and frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp, again. While their last project together was the 2012 movie adaptation of the classic Dark Shadows television show, Burton: “Well, I’m sure there will be.
“I never feel like, oh, I’m going to use this and that actor,” the Oscar-nominated filmmaker said. “It usually has to be based on the project I’m working on. That’s what film is all about. It’s collaboration and bouncing ideas off the people around you.”
Depp’s most recent films, 2020’s Minimata and 2023’s Jeanne du Barry, received negative reviews following his divorce and court battle with his former wife, Amber Heard. A project with the helmer who helped him become one of Hollywood’s most high-profile A-list actors in the late 1980s may help the actor reclaim his former glory.
Depp is set to star in Terry Gilliam’s The Carnival at the End of Days with Jeff Bridges, Jason Momoa and Adam Driver. The movie’s production scheduled to begin next month. He is also attached to appear in the Marc Webb thriller Day Drinker with Penelope Cruz. The film will be Depp’s first Hollywood production in over six years.
Burton also told the audience in Marrakech that he’s no longer interested in working with Disney. His last projects with the studio, including his live-action remake of Dumbo and live-action follow-up, Alice Through the Looking Glass, received negative reviews.
“When I was working as an animator at Disney, I was not very good,” the filmmaker revealed. “Then they just let me draw and do whatever I wanted to do, which was incredible. Then I got the opportunity to do movies, but they didn’t really want to do my movies, so it was a very long and strange relationship.”
Burton continued: “Creativity is based on love, passion and maybe sometimes revenge. These are all passionate feelings and sometimes it was hard for me to pick which was passion, which was revenge or which was love because I treated any kind of studio situation I had as like being in a weird family. Sometimes they love you, sometimes they hate you and that seemed pretty normal to me. I have no bad feelings about the studio, but I do think my days are done. As studios get more and more corporate, I feel like there has been less room for people like me.”
The next project the filmmaker is working on is a remake of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. However, he was hesitant to discuss further details about the film during the festival. He noted during a red carpet interview with IndieWire that “One thing I learned very early on is until I’m actually on a set doing something, I don’t know if I’m doing it. I never like to talk about things too much.
“I’ve worked on so many projects, sometimes they happen, sometimes they don’t happen, so I don’t want to jinx anything. I mean, I was doing Superman once. There was another project that I worked for a year on, and it didn’t happen. It’s quite traumatic, it’s quite emotional,” the filmmaker added.
Inspired by his childhood love of monster and horror movies, Burton is next set to next the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman remake, which was penned by Gone Girl screenwriter Gillian Flynn, for Warner Bros. He will also share production duties with Tommy Harper and Andrew Mittman.
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