Tim Burton and Sleeping Beauty

Here's some recent Hollywood buzz to share: Tim Burton to Attack 'Sleeping Beauty' Next? by Monika Bartyzel.

There's a new rumor going around -- one that teeters very delicately on the fence between adoration and fear. But either way you fall, don't hold your breath because it's still very much a rumor: Harry over at AICN was talking with a contact who said that Tim Burton isn't done with Disney fairy tales, and now wants to zero in on Sleeping Beauty.

Of course, the most beautiful girl in the land dancing and singing "Once Upon a Dream" isn't really the sort of theme Burton is usually attracted to. So, what's the deal? Supposedly, he doesn't want to focus on Aurora, but rather the other woman of the tale, the one I raved about just a few months ago: Maleficent. In "a quasi Live Actiony kinda way," Burton is said to want to tell the imposing woman's story from her point of view and call the project, aptly, Maleficent.

And Tim Burton to Direct Sleeping Beauty Remake Maleficent? by Brendon Connelly

It bodes well for Alice in Wonderland that Disney are now reportedly lining up another revisionist re-take on one of their cartoon classics for Tim Burton to direct. Maleficent will be a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story that focuses on the Mistress of all Evil instead of that pretty somnambulist and her slightly creepy Prince Phillip.

The studio registered the domain name maleficentmovie.com some time last summer, so I’ve been waiting for news a while. Of course, until now I wasn’t entirely convinced it was going to be a live action picture - well, in so much as it will be live action, which I’m expecting will be probably to just the extent that Alice is - and not an animated spin-off, a la the Tinkerbell series or that Timon and Pumbaa picture.

My first thought was Helena Bonham Carter as Maleficent? Not my vision of her. Carter's a fine actress, but to begin with, she doesn't have the physical stature or overall appearance of the character. But she might not chew scenery like some other actresses I can imagine in the role. I'd prefer her as Aurora even if she would be bored and is past ingenue age.

This means if you are interested in such a film, you'd better head out to see Alice in Wonderland this spring.

And here I admit that Sleeping Beauty is one of my personal favorites of the Disney fairy tale interpretations. (I think it's the entire Once Upon a Dream scene. Actually, I know it is. I have been known to just rush ahead to it and then be bored when it ends. Love the waltz. I rather shudder to imagine what Burton would do with it.)

And I'm still amazed that Tim Burton and Disney inhabit the same planet, let alone collaborate...