Tim Burton Films With Johnny Depp

Seven Movies Feature Collaboration Between the Director and Actor

Aug 10, 2008 Leslie C. Halpern

Johnny Depp helps bring Tim Burton's dark creative visions to life in films ranging from animation to horror.

Burton and Depp have worked together on seven different movies so far, ranging from animation to science fiction to dark comedy to horror films. Depp’s range of characters and mastery of accents make him the perfect muse for Burton’s brooding visions portraying society’s misfits.

As audiences await more information on their upcoming eighth collaboration, Dark Shadows, they can satisfy their Burton-Depp cravings with the following films:

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

In this upcoming film based on the Lewis Carroll novel, Depp takes on the role of The Mad Hatter.

• Additional cast: MIa Wasikowska, Michael Sheen, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman.
• Rating: To Be Determined

Sweeney Todd (2007)

Depp, in the title role, stars as The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a London barber who unfairly loses everything he treasures. When he returns after more than a dozen years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Todd sets his vengeful plans into motion with the aid of a woman baker. The film includes many of the popular songs from the Broadway musical stage show on which this bloody horror film is based.

• Additional cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Alan Rickman
• Rating: R

Corpse Bride (2005)

Co-directed with Mike Johnson, Burton and Carlos Grangel create animated characters involved in a wedding mixup. A shy groom (voiced by Depp) retreats into the woods to practice reciting his wedding vows and putting the ring on his bride’s finger, but accidentally marries a dead woman. This corpse bride takes her new husband to the Land of the Dead where he has problems deciding which wife to choose.

• Additional cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman
• Rating: PG

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Depp plays Willy Wonka, an eccentric candy maker who takes a small group of children on a tour of his factory. Based on the book by Roald Dahl, this updated version of the 1971 musical Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory includes musical numbers confined to the Oompa-Loompas who run the factory. Depp’s performance combines humor, eccentricity, and maliciousness to depict the hurt child residing inside the grown man.

• Additional cast: Freddie Highmore, Helena Bonham Carter, Deep Roy
• Rating: PG

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Based on the story by Washington Irving, Sleepy Hollow stars Depp as the squeamish Ichabod Crane, sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate horrific decapitation murders. A man of science, Ichabod faces the possibility that evil exists in other forms. During his visit, a young woman appears to alternately help and hinder his investigation. As in many Burton films, the character’s past demons come back to haunt him in the present. The film contains a mix of horror, mystery, comedy, and romance.

• Additional cast: Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon
• Rating: R

Ed Wood (1994)

Starring in the title role of this black-and-white biopic, Depp portrays the director and writer Edward D. Wood, Jr., known as The World’s Worst Movie Director. Working in the 1950s during the science fiction craze, Wood wrote and directed Plan 9 From Outer Space (often considered the worst movie of all time for its low budget, bad acting, and lack of continuity). His colorful personal life includes cross-dressing, alcoholism, and a close friendship with horror star Bela Lugosi.

• Additional cast: Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette
• Rating: R

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

In this dark romantic fairy tale, Depp portrays Edward Scissorhands, the prized creation of an old inventor who dies before he can attach the hands. Edward has an assortment of scissors at the end of his arms, used for creating (ice sculptures, topiaries, dog grooming) or destroying (puncturing, ripping, stabbing). Taken from isolation and brought into middle-class America by a kindly Avon lady, Edward finds the sex and violence of the outside world too much to handle. Although his spoken lines are few, Depp commands each scene with his physical presence and highly expressive face.

• Additional cast: Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Alan Arkin
• Rating: PG-13

Find out more information about Tim Burton and Johnny Depp at Internet Movie Database.

The copyright of the article Tim Burton Films With Johnny Depp in Celebrities/Pop Culture is owned by Leslie C. Halpern. Permission to republish Tim Burton Films With Johnny Depp in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Johnny Depp Stars in Seven Tim Burton Films

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Comments

Dec 24, 2009 2:16 AM

Guest :

Depp's performance in Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber... is quite superlative. Take his diction? Normally a non-native speaker taking on an exotic accent is executing such a feat of intellectual complexity and endurance that the effort tends to 'intrude', to the extent that it becomes distracting to the viewer. In this movie, Depp's delivery is so effortless that he positively toys with his task.... and is so authentic as to achieve that special magic unique to great cinema - Suspension of dis-belief.
Its almost miraculous!

Jan 2, 2010 10:18 PM

Guest :

im 13.. Haha, i like most of those movies and own 'Charlie and the chocolate factory' 'Sweeny Todd' 'Sleepy hollow'(i think). Lol.
and corpse bride. I really wanna see alice in wonderland, it looks soooogood! johnny deep is a great actor and tim burton clearly is a good director! xo who eva reads this.. lol!

Jan 8, 2010 9:00 AM

Guest :

Tim burton is not a good director he is an amazing director. i love his movies. sleepy hollow is my favorite so far.... until i see the new alice in wonderland im most certain it will be great. i love seeing johnny depp bring his characters to life and i hope to see more.

Jan 9, 2010 6:16 PM

Guest :

i love johnny depp movies, his best are the tim burton ones (exept for pirates of the caribbean, they are meanest!) i haven't seen ed wood though. i can't wait to see alice in wonderland, it should be awesome! it's a shame it's in 3d though..

Jan 29, 2010 3:48 AM

Guest :

Ed Wood is a masterpeice. Most people find the movie utterly unfathomable and have never even heard of Bela Lugosi. So it's wasted on them. Here Burton is paying homage to a genre that is reviled because it's no longer fashionable. The period too (just after WW II) is beyond anyone under 60. And it's a challenge he cleary relishes. The collaboration is again criitical. Without Depp's brilliance it would certainly have flopped badly. Martin Landau as Lugosi is an ornament..

Feb 21, 2010 2:57 AM

Guest :

johnney depp has all the diffren chariters and thats what bonds the two people tim burton and johnney depp because johnney can play tim burton chariters purfecty i love depps movies

Feb 24, 2010 7:00 AM

Guest :

all movies with johnny depp in them are awesome i think he is one of the best actors out there i love all the movies that tim burton puts him in he does a wonderful job cant wait to see the newest movie that tim burton in putting out wtih johnny depp alice and wonderland he is going to play a good part of the hatter.:}

Mar 4, 2010 2:34 PM

Guest :

I adore Johnny Depp's work. He does so well, and achieves things most actors have yet to even grasp in finding thier characters. And Tim Burton is so utterly twisted and delightful, his works reminicant of Edgar Allan Poe, almost. I enjoy both the men so much there is no way these films could be terrible.

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