Tim Burton Grilled on 'Alice,' '9'

Tim Burton is a busy man. After spending the past year laboring away on his technologically complex adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland,” Burton hit up Comic-Con to promote the film, then jetted over to New York to promote the Museum of Modern Art's November exhibit of his work. Meantime, he’s on the stump for Shane Acker's “9,” a post-apocalyptic animated fable that Burton produced (with “Wanted” director Timur Bekmambetov) about hand-stiched robots picking up the pieces in the wake of humanity's destruction. (Think less “Wall-E” than “Fievel Goes to the Future.”) Directed by Shane Acker, the movie opens Sept. 9  -- 9/9/09, naturally.

Characteristically adorned in sunglasses while sitting in a shadowy room, Burton spoke with The Wrap about “Alice,” “9,” premature internet buzz and the new commercial potential of "dark" stories.

The trailer for “Alice in Wonderland” leaked online a day early. How did you feel about that?
I didn't like that. Somebody f---ed that one up. It just shows you how easy … it's like, "Oh, sorry, I just pushed that nuke button." That's the problem. All this stuff is so available. I still come from the olden days where you like to see a movie and be surprised. Then you want to know something about it -- as opposed to getting everything front-loaded. A movie just loses its whole mystique.

The art of the trailer has become an entirely separate creative process.
Well, yeah. I've always had my theories, and my theories are always different from the marketing people.

At any rate, the trailer indicates an appropriately vibrant take on the story. Is this a palate-cleanser after the grimness of “Sweeney Todd”?
Yeah, it's a different palate. Also, the “Alice” imagery has been around. For me, it wasn't so much the books. I was aware of it from other aspects of popular culture, whether it was in music or other images. It was just about trying to tell it in a way so it's not a series of weird events, like in the book. (Watch the "Alice in Wonderland" character slideshow.)

Are you staying away from the acid subtext?
No, no, not so much that. I'm just trying to keep away from the structure that the other [interpretations] suffer from, the episodic stuff. A passive little girl wandering around thinking everything is weird.

It's weird talking about “Alice” when I have so much left to do on it. It's a bit creepy.

Audiences tend to bring a certain baggage to the theater when the movie involves a familiar brand, which many of your movies do.
They're harder to do for that reason. Everybody looks at the white rabbit or the Cheshire Cat or the Mad Hatter and has an idea of what they should be.

 

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