There will be three.... THREE movies which would have the touch of the talented twisted-meister Tim Burton.
Red Dot Diva is a huge fan of Tim Burton's strangely beautiful and macabre works of art and she counted herself fortunate to be able to visit the Tim Burton Exhibit held at LACMA last year.
The exhibit was quite small but had a comprehensive display of Tim Burton's works from his childhood days till the present. There were many letters, paintings, doodles, poems, rare footage, puppets, props, costumes, even the screening of "Hansel and Gretel" - a film that actually ran on the Disney Channel during Halloween of 1983.
The experience was like taking a surrealistic journey inside Tim Burton's mind, catching wondrous glimpses of the disturbing artistic influences and ideas which have been brought to life in several movies on the big screen.
And to know that there are more Tim Burton movies coming soon... well... SQUEEEE!
"Dark Shadows"
The first Tim Burton movie set for release this year is the remake of "Dark Shadows". Red Dot Diva noticed that the recently released trailer seem to be dividing movie watchers and some were beginning to wonder if Tim Burton is "doing a Michael Bay"."Dark Shadows" was a popular low-budget soap opera screened on ABC from 1966 to 1971. One cannot expect Red Dot Diva to have heard of or watched the original version. She was just a pipsqueak at the time. Later on in the 90's, there was a short-lived remake on TV, which Red Dot Diva didn't bother to follow either.
The 1960's version was a serious supernatural soap opera about a vampire Barnabas Collins and his family living in the Collinwood mansion. Red Dot Diva researched on some snippets of the soap opera on YouTube, and found it to be a typical daytime fare of the day, resplendent with OTT theatrical acting style of its time.
In Tim Burton's re-telling of "Dark Shadows", the kookiness and camp has been revved up so high that it looked a like wild chompful of fun. Expectedly, fans of the original version are finding it difficult to reconcile the sombre soap opera with it being a comedy.
But then, one can't expect Tim Burton to really Do the Serious. It is just not his thing. Worse, if one expects him to do the googly-eyed romantic mush ala Twilight. Oh, Horror of horrors!
Instead this latest movie version is probably relying on the fans who had loved Tim Burton's other camp classics like "Beetlejuice". His usual muses are in the movie - Johnny Depp doing his take in the famous role of Barnabas Collins and wife Helena Bonham-Carter as live-in psychiatrist Dr Julia Hoffman. There is also the still youthful-looking (does one ever wonder if she is an undead in real life?) 52-year-old Michelle Pfieffer as family matriach Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. And playing the jealous witch Angelique Bouchard is ex-Bond girl Eva Green.
While watching the trailer, Red Dot Diva thought Johnny Depp's comic timing was perfect despite that weird greasy K-pop looking hair. After a slew of emo vamps coming out of the dark lately, Red Dot Diva is soooo ready to take on the hilarious eccentricity of Depp's Barnabas Collins.
Then again, she's always impartial to both Burton and Depp so... definitely a squee from her for this upcoming movie to be released in May 2012.
"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"
Book lovers of Seth Grahame-Smith's "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" do not have to wait too long for the movie adaptation. The 20th Century Fox movie about "the untold story" of America's 16th president Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter, is set for a summer release in June 2012.
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch", "Wanted") and with Tim Burton as producer, the movie seems to be promising - in a flashy kind of way.
Listening to the thumping battle-like trailer music while watching young Abraham Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) wielding an axe in such a kick-ass manner was definitely invigorating! But Red Dot Diva is not sure if "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" will be any more interesting than all the other explosive, over-CGI-ed action movies slated for release in summer 2012.
Truth be told, Red Dot Diva cannot help but wish that both Abraham Lincoln (the Vampire Hunter alter-ego) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer could have worked together. Edward would most likely have been staked before there was even Twilight.
"Frankenweenie"
Despite the deceivingly pervy title, this long awaited black-and-white stop-motion animation movie is Tim Burton's tribute to "Frankenstein" - the horror classic by Mary Shelley. "Frankenweenie" tells the tale of a young boy Victor Frankenstein who lost his beloved pet dog Sparky due to an unfortunate car accident and tries all ways to revive the pooch through the "power of science". With the successful resurrection of Sparky, Victor inevitably created a furry kind of monster, to the distress of his neighbours.
In fact, this full feature-length version is a resurrection of sorts too. Tim Burton has decided to bring the story back to life from his own 1984 short film with Disney.
Red Dot Diva is over the moon that Tim Burton has decided to go with stop-motion animation for this incarnation of "Frankenweenie". Using the painstaking technique that was developed many years ago, his brilliant storytelling in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride" still resonates in the current age when CGI-animation is taking hold of more and more screen time.
With the "Frankenweenie" trailer, Tim Burton appears to be back on form with the dark, quirky and macabre. The monochrome tones of the new "Frankenweenie" was a throwback to the days of old horror Vincent Prince-like silent movies. And the trailer offered just that right incongruous mixture of gruesome morbidity and weird-cuteness that would touch the hearts of those who have ever lost a childhood pet.
Lending their voices to this animation project are Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Landau, Martin Short and Charlie Tahan as the boy, Vincent Frankenstein.
It is "Frankenweenie" for which Red Dot Diva truly craves to feed her inner ghoulish Burton-esque soul this year. She is sure it will be another Tim Burton masterpiece.
Needless to say, she is already counting down eagerly to its release in October 2012.
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