Steve Oedekerk To Do Rewrite on Burton’s Believe it or Not
Some would say that Tim Burton hasn’t quite been himself in recent years, and while I do agree that he hasn’t put out any true classics lately, I did enjoy both Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Big Fish (as for Planet of the Apes, well, there’s no defending that one). That said, it’s about time Burton found something really good to sink his teeth into again, and I was starting to think that Ripley’s Believe it or Not! would be the perfect return to form we have all been waiting for. It is a loose biopic about the life of Robert Ripley who travelled the world during the 30’s and 40’s in search of the bizarre and the incredible. Jim Carrey was attached to star, and Ed Wood writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski had penned the script. But then in June, the project was put on hold indefinitely due to a ballooning $150 million budget, and creative changes that had been requested by Carrey and Burton.
It was looking like the project was unofficially dead in the water, but this week Fox have held true to their word and decided to bring the movie back off the shelf by hiring a new screenwriter to overhaul the script. The name of that screenwriter? Mr. Steve Oedekerk. Wait a minute, you’re telling me that the guy behind Kung Pow: Enter The Fist, Thumb Wars and Patch Adams is going to fix up a Tim Burton movie? I’m sorry, but I just don’t see it. I guess the connection here is that Oedekerk has worked with Carrey many times over the years (he was a writer on In Living Color and also wrote/directed Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and wrote Bruce Almighty). Unfortunately, this makes it seem like the project has shifted from being a Tim Burton movie to being a Jim Carrey movie, and suddenly I’m a lot less interested. Thoughts?
» Related Link: Variety
Comments (11)
Sleepy Hollow was Tim Burton’s best movie, and definitely a classic.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Ed Wood, I thought it was kind of boring, but I agree that I don’t have very much interest in another Jim Carrey vehicle ala Bruce Almighty. However, maybe it’s not so black and white. It could be win-win if Oedekerk is actually a good writer, who just got pidgeon-hold. I thought Ace Ventura 2 was very good, so the man has talent, he might be able to do other things. I don’t think Jim Carrey is that interested in doing anymore funnyman vehicles. That being said, didn’t all of his movies get cancelled? Maybe this is all they will let him do now.
Tall order this movie. I think Tim Burton should do more genre-pieces. He is able to bring his own quirks and style into them. Some of his movies tend to go alittle overboard I think.
Posted by Henrik on December 18th, 2006Sleepy Hollow is ultra-meh. in fact i dont think he has had a good movie since Ed Wood.
Posted by Goon on December 18th, 2006Blasphemy.
Sleepy Hollow is great. It’s funny, it’s creepy, it’s disgusting, it’s tongue-in-cheek, it’s beautiful, it’s magical. Probably my favorite performance by Johnny Depp in any movie, and the cast of the people in the village is awesome. You can’t deny the scenes with the 4 elders are great. Probably my favourite Christopher Walken performance too. And it has kids being killed.
Ed Wood was just a bunch of talking heads. It never moved. The only thing that kept me interested was Bela Lugosi. I would say that Mars Attacks is much better than Ed Wood as well, but I can see why people wouldn’t like it. It is alittle overboard, but I thought it was very funny.
Posted by Henrik on December 18th, 2006Talking heads? you’re crazy.
Posted by Goon on December 18th, 2006It’s certainly not a visual experience.
And I don’t mind a talky movie. Sleepy Hollow has tons of dialogue but it’s a murder mystery. It plays like a Sherlock Holmes story. But it also has the awesome visuals. Like a headless horsemen rising from the roots of the tree of the dead. That shit gets you excited.
Posted by Henrik on December 18th, 2006well, i think its very nice visually.
theres more to movie visuals than checkerboard floors and stupid costumes.
Posted by Goon on December 18th, 2006Such as what? Rick Baker make-up?
It is very nice. I never said, and don’t think, that it’s bad visually or not well done. It certainly is. But it’s not in the same league as Sleepy Hollow, and I guess the story doesn’t call for it in the same way.
But I think Sleepy Hollow is a movie where the visual side really gets to shine, and add an element to the story in a perfect way.
Posted by Henrik on December 18th, 2006my big issue is really that the Sleepy Hollow story sucks at a feature film length, and Ed Wood’s biography is tremendously interesting and well told.
i must say i’m not much of a Depp fan at all. To me Ed Wood is his only truly great performance.
Posted by Goon on December 18th, 2006Crazy.. Have you seen From Hell? He was awesome in that. And in Sleepy Hollow he plays a better woman than Christina Ricci. Those two movies are what made me a fan. Too bad all the restraint has to go down the shitter to pull in the big bucks.
I thought they took the Sleepy Hollow legend and weaved a story around it, and created some characters that were very interesting and I loved it. I thought the ‘who-dun-it’-aspect of it was awesome, and totally unexpected. And the action was cool, it had genuine athmosphere and tension at times, and great humor. I love that movie.
Ed Wood was interesting at times, but also boring. No development, nothing happens. Bela Lugosi, as played by Martin Landau, is cool, and a great performance, but everytime he wasn’t on screen it got a little boring. I do own the movie, but I don’t watch it all that often. I think I only watched it once from beginning to end.
Posted by Henrik on December 18th, 2006well if you dont find the Ed Wood story interesting i suppose you could find it boring. However whenever i see even a couple seconds of that movie, on TV or someone else watching it, i have to sit and watch till the end.
I think Johnny Depp is a ham, and his performances pull out of each movie he’s in. Luckily in Ed Wood thats how he needed to be.
Posted by Goon on December 19th, 2006I agree with that, EXCEPT for From Hell and Sleepy Hollow. Especially From Hell is very restrained. That’s an underrated movie.
Posted by Henrik on December 19th, 2006Leave a Reply