Tim Burton and Johnny Depp
Film directors often need a source of inspiration for their work and when they find it in someone – an actor, actress, cameraman or scriptwriter – their art blossoms all the more beautifully because of it. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp form this kind of duo.
From their very first meeting on the set of Edward Scissorhands in 1990, the alchemy was immediate and undeniable. When asked about the actor, Tim Burton replied: “As soon as I saw him, I knew he was perfect for the role; it was an extremely strong feeling.”
Now, after 20 years of collaboration, they are releasing their 7th film together, Alice in Wonderland, in 3D, with Johnny Depp playing the Mad Hatter. As usual, their newest joint project is eagerly anticipated, because the magic they disperse is ever present.
They draw on their respective imaginative worlds, on their distinctly unique universes, and create films as if playing a harmonious, four-handed piano score. Johnny Depp inhabits and transcends the characters created by Tim Burton, who finds the ideal messenger for the worlds shaped by his boundless imagination in Depp.
In each of the films they create together, they explore surprising, new ideas that delight cinema audiences and critics alike. There was the worst film director of all time in Ed Wood (1995), the highly sensitive detective Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow (2000), the eccentric factory owner Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2004), the young Victor caught between the worlds of the living and the dead in Corpse Bride (2005), the bloodthirsty Benjamin Barker in Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2008) and, soon, the vampire Barnabas Collins will grace our screens in an adaptation of the 1960s television series, Dark Shadows.
Many other joint projects are surely still to come… Yet beyond their artistic sensibilities, there is also, and above all else, a story of friendship. The most obvious and natural kind of friendship.
“Our relationship is built on trust. It’s the most important thing in a relationship between an actor and a director. What I share with Tim and what inspires me when I watch him work is his level of enthusiasm, his passion. For me, what contributes to the identity of a Tim Burton film is Tim Burton himself. Whatever the cast, Tim’s signature is everywhere.” (Johnny Depp)
Credits (from left to righ): Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Charlie and the chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, Sleepy Hollow. – www.collectionchristophel.fr
