Rumors of an animated Frankenweenie movie prove true as Daily Variety reports a two-pic deal between filmmaker Tim Burton and the Walt Disney Co. Based on Burton’s 1984 short film of the same name, Frankenweenie will be created with stop-motion while an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland will be made with performance-capture a la Beowulf. Both films will be produced for stereoscopic 3-D exhibition.
Adapted for the screen by Linda Woolverton (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast) Alice in Wonderland will roll into production in early 2008 with Richard Zanuck, Joe Roth and Suzanne and Jennifer Todd producing. Burton will bring his own signature style to the classic story of a young girl who slips down a rabbit hole and enters a fantastic world beyond her wildest imagination. The filmmaker has done a number of literary adaptations over the years, including Sleepy Hollow for Paramount, Big Fish for Columbia Pictures, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Warner Bros. and the soon-to-be-released Sweeney Todd for Paramount and DreamWorks, not to mention his take on Marvel Comic’s Batman.
Frankenweenie will reportedly go into production after Wonderland has wrapped. The feature will expand on the short film about a boy named Victor Frankenstein, who brings his dog back to life after a tragic accident. When the stitched-together creature gets out of the house, the once quiet suburban neighborhood is thrown into panic and the fearful residents form an angry mob bent on destroying the re-animated pooch. The black-and-white homage to the Universal classic Frankenstein features Shelley Duvall, Daniel Stern and a very young Sophia Coppola.
Like DreamWorks Animation, Disney is putting a lot of stock in the notion that 3-D presentation will play a major role in the future of animation. The House of Mouse previously released Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons in 3-D, and had ILM convert Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas to 3-D for the successful 2006 re-release. Jack Skellington and pals were back in theater this past Halloween, and may be a seasonal fixture for years to come.
