12 things you probably didn’t know about Tim Burton movies
He’s made films about everything from a superhero and a Mad Hatter to novel adaptation ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’, but how many of these facts about director Tim Burton’s filmography do you know?
Miss Peregrine’s house is a real place
The home where Eva Green invites in her strange waifs and strays is not built on some studio backlot. In fact, it’s called Torenhof and is outside Antwerp in Belgium.
Anne Hathaway’s White Queen is modelled after Nigella Lawson
“She’s really beautiful and she does all this cooking, but then there’s this glint in her eye…” Burton told the Los Angeles Times about how the TV chef influenced Hathaway’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ character. “When you see it you go, ‘oh woah, she’s like really…nuts.’ I mean in a good way.”
- Eva Green & Tim Burton on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
- Tim Burton’s biggest hits and flops
Lisa Marie was sewn into her ‘Mars Attacks!’ outfit
As Martian Girl, her dress had no visible attachments to do it up so it felt as otherworldly as possible.
Helena Bonham Carter was pregnant during the making of ‘Sweeney Todd’
The actress subsequently explained that if you look closely, you can see the size of her breasts changing throughout the movie because it was all filmed out of sequence.
Michelle Pfeiffer got through 60 catsuits in ‘Batman Returns’
The actress’s iconic costume in the Bat sequel was snug – and breakable. Playing Catwoman, Pfeiffer had to cover herself in talcum powder before putting on the latex suit otherwise it wouldn’t go on.
Jack Skellington is in ‘Beetlejuice’
When Michael Keaton sprouts a merry-go-round on his head in the 1988 classic, you can just about see a skeleton face adorning the top of it. Burton had dreamed of making ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ for many years and finally found a way to get Jack into a movie (before he got his own a few years later).
Britain’s legendary Blackpool Tower features in ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’
Part of the film was shot there and the director is a big fan of the iconic tourist destination, even going so far as to turn on the city’s famous illuminations in 2015.
Burton’s not allowed to go to Comic Con because of ‘Batman’
According to the director himself, the liberties he took with the comic book storylines in his two Batman movies saw him handed a life ban from the fan convention.
Christopher Walken couldn’t ride a horse when he was cast in ‘Sleepy Hollow’
Which is kind of a problem when your character is called the Headless Horseman. Still, the actor copped to it and they managed to find a solution.
The elephant wasn’t supposed to poo in ‘Big Fish’
The brief scene of the elephant relieving himself during a Ewan McGregor dream sequence was impromptu, but the cameraman made sure to get it on tape and Burton kept it in the movie.
Tim Roth didn’t get on with Charlton Heston in ‘Planet of the Apes’
Even though the ‘Ben-Hur’ star played his on-screen father, the British actor found it troublesome thanks to Heston’s famous support of the National Rifle Association. “It was very difficult for me,” Roth said subsequently.
The company who made the bikes for ‘Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure’ don’t receive a credit
But it’s okay – they agreed to it. The Pedal Pusher Bike Shop made around 12 bespoke retro cycles for the movie and were given the choice between ten grand or an on-screen credit. They chose the former.
‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ is released in the UK on 30th September.
Try out the new Peculiar Generator app here and read the children’s story eBook featuring the characters here.
Image credits: OutNow, Getty, Rex_Shutterstock
