Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Sleepy Hollow film wikipedia pages
Sleepy Hollow (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy hollow ver2.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Tim Burton
Produced by
Scott Rudin
Adam Schroeder
Screenplay by
Andrew Kevin Walker
Story by
Andrew Kevin Walker
Kevin Yagher
Based on
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
by Washington Irving
Starring
Johnny Depp
Christina Ricci
Miranda Richardson
Michael Gambon
Casper Van Dien
Jeffrey Jones
Christopher Lee
Music by
Danny Elfman
Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki
Editing by
Chris Lebenzon
Joel Negron
Studio
Paramount Pictures
Mandalay Pictures
American Zoetrope
Karol Film Productions[1]
Tim Burton Productions
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)
November 17, 1999 (premiere)
November 19, 1999 (United States)
Running time
105 minutes[2]
Country
United States
Germany
Language
English
Budget
$100 million[2]
Box office
$206,071,502[2]
Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American-German horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely inspired by the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and stars Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, with Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, and Jeffrey Jones in supporting roles. The plot follows police constable Ichabod Crane (Depp) sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders in the village of Sleepy Hollow by a mysterious Headless Horseman.
It is the first film by Mandalay Pictures. Development began in 1993 at Paramount Pictures with Kevin Yagher originally set to direct Andrew Kevin Walker's script as a low-budget slasher film. Disagreements with Paramount resulted in Yagher being demoted to prosthetic makeup designer, and Burton was hired to direct in June 1998. Filming took place from November 1998 to May 1999, and Sleepy Hollow was released to generally favorable reviews from critics, and grossed approximately $207 million worldwide. Production designer Rick Heinrichs and set decorator Peter Young won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Though the film's screenplay is credited to Andrew Kevin Walker, the majority of it was actually ghostwritten by Tom Stoppard.
Contents
[hide] 1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Development
3.2 Filming
3.3 Design 3.3.1 Cinematography
3.3.2 Visual effects
3.4 Musical score
4 Release 4.1 Reception
4.2 Accolades
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Plot[edit]
Ichabod Crane is a 24-year-old New York City police officer in 1799. Facing imprisonment for going against traditional methods and favoring forensic investigation techniques such as finger-printing and autopsies not considered to be orthodox at that time and considered unimportant, Ichabod submits to deployment with his bag of tools to the Westchester County hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, New York, which has been plagued by a series of brutal slayings in which the victims have been found decapitated: Peter Van Garrett, wealthy farmer and landowner; his son Dirk; and the widow Emily Winship. Arriving in Sleepy Hollow, Crane is informed by the town's elders that the killer is not of flesh and blood, but rather an undead headless Hessian mercenary from the American Revolutionary War who rides at night on a massive black steed in search of his missing head.
At a funeral for one of the victims, young Masbath's father, Magistrate Phillipse tells Crane that although there are now four graves, there are five victims. After exhuming the bodies, Crane discovers that the Widow Winship was with child at the time of her murder.
Crane begins his investigation, remaining highly skeptical about the supernatural elements in the case until he actually encounters the Headless Horseman himself, who kills the Magistrate Samuel Phillipse on sight. Boarding in a room at the home of the town's richest family and the Van Garretts' next of kin, the Van Tassels, Crane develops an attraction to their daughter Katrina (an attraction deeply resented by Brom van Brunt, a suitor to Katrina), while he is plagued by nightmares of his mother's horrific torture when he was a child. Brom attempts to frighten Crane away by posing as the Headless Horseman, but is himself killed by the real Horseman. Riding into the Western Woods with the orphaned Young Masbath, son of the Horseman's fifth victim, they come across the cave dwelling of a reclusive sorceress. She reveals the location of the gnarled Tree of the Dead, which marks the Horseman's grave, as well as his portal into the natural world from the supernatural.
Crane discovers that the ground is freshly disturbed and, digging through, discovers the Horseman's skeleton and that the skull is missing; he hypothesizes that someone is controlling the Horseman. Just then, the Horseman's ghost bursts out of the tree and gallops towards Sleepy Hollow. Crane attempts to follow but winds up lost. Meanwhile,the midwife and her family are murdered by the Horseman, and a town council is held in the town church. Baltus, calling to Lady Van Tassel, flees when he sees the Horseman galloping towards her with sword drawn. Baltus arrives at the church and informs Katrina that her stepmother is dead, just as the Horseman arrives at the church. With the men firing muskets at the Horseman as he circles the church, Crane realizes the Horseman can't enter the church grounds due to some protective supernatural force. A massive fight breaks out in the church when Dr. Thomas Lancaster suggests confessing for forgiveness, and then Lancaster is killed by Reverend Steenwyck, who is in turn shot by a frightened Baltus. The chaos ends only when the Horseman harpoons Baltus through a church window using a pointed church fence post attached to a rope, dragging him out and acquiring his head. Katrina faints at the sight of her father's murder, and Crane discovers she has drawn an occult symbol on the floor. Believing he has solved the case (he names Katrina as the one who controlled the Horseman), Crane prepares to leave Sleepy Hollow.
Crane becomes suspicious when the corpse of Lady Van Tassel has too fresh a wound on her palm for one already dead. His suspicions are confirmed to be right when the Lady van Tassel emerges, alive, from the dark and shocks her step-daughter Katrina into a faint.
Katrina awakens and eventually uncovers a murky plot revolving around revenge on the Van Garretts and land rights with the Horseman controlled by Katrina's stepmother Lady Van Tassel, who sends the supernatural killer after Katrina now to solidify her hold on what she considers her property, a piece of land unjustly claimed by Baltus.
Following a fight in the local windmill and a stagecoach chase through the woods, Crane eventually thwarts Lady Van Tassel by throwing the skull to the Horseman, breaking the curse. The Horseman, no longer under Lady Van Tassel's control, hoists her up on his horse, then rides to Hell taking her with him, fulfilling her end of the deal with the Devil. With the Headless Horseman menace eradicated, Crane returns home to New York with Katrina and young Masbath, just in time for Christmas and the new century.
Cast[edit]
Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane
Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel
Miranda Richardson as Lady Van Tassel/Crone Sister
Michael Gambon as Baltus Van Tassel
Casper Van Dien as Brom Van Brunt
Jeffrey Jones as Reverend Steenwyck
Richard Griffiths as Magistrate Samuel Philipse
Ian McDiarmid as Dr. Thomas Lancaster
Michael Gough as Notary James Hardenbrook
Marc Pickering as Young Masbath, whose father was a victim of the Horseman
Christopher Walken and Ray Park as The Hessian/Headless Horseman
Claire Skinner as the Beth Killian, the Midwife
Steven Waddington as Killian, Beth's husband
Christopher Lee as the Burgomaster
Alun Armstrong as the High Constable
Martin Landau as Peter Van Garrett
Lisa Marie Smith as Lady Crane, Ichabod's mother
Peter Guinness as Lord Crane, Ichabod's father
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
In 1993, Kevin Yagher, a make-up effects designer who had turned to directing with Tales from the Crypt, had the notion to adapt Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" into a feature film. Through his agent, Yagher was introduced to Andrew Kevin Walker; they spent a few months working on a film treatment[3] that transformed Ichabod Crane as a schoolmaster from Connecticut to a banished New York City detective.[4] Yagher and Walker subsequently pitched Sleepy Hollow to various studios and production companies, eventually securing a deal with producer Scott Rudin,[3] who had been impressed with Walker's unproduced spec script for Seven.[5] Rudin optioned the project to Paramount Pictures in a deal that had Yagher set to direct, with Walker scripting; the pair would share story credit.[3] Following the completion of Hellraiser: Bloodline, Yahger had planned Sleepy Hollow as a low-budget production—"a pretentious slasher film with a spectacular murder every five minutes or so." Paramount disagreed on the concept and demoted Yagher's involvement to prosthetic makeup designer.[6] "They never really saw it as a commercial movie," producer Adam Schroeder noted. "The studio thinks 'old literary classic' and they think The Crucible. We started developing it before horror movies came back."[7]
Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing revived studio interest in 1998.[5] Schroeder, who shepherded Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands as a studio executive at 20th Century Fox in 1990, suggested that Burton direct the film.[8] Francis Ford Coppola's minimal production duties came from American Zoetrope; Burton only became aware of Coppola's involvement during the editing process when he was sent a copy of Sleepy Hollow's trailer and saw Coppola's name on it.[8] Burton, coming off the troubled production of Superman Lives, was hired to direct in June 1998.[9] "I had never really done something that was more of a horror film," he explained, "and it's funny, because those are the kind of movies that I like probably more than any other genre."[3] His interest in directing a horror film influenced by his love for Hammer Film Productions and Black Sunday—particularly the supernatural feel they evoked as a result of being filmed primarily on sound stages.[7] As a result, Sleepy Hollow is a homage to various Hammer Film Productions, including Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde,[10] and other films such as Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, various Roger Corman horror films,[11] Jason and the Argonauts, and Scream Blacula Scream.[5] The image of the Headless Horseman had fascinated Burton during his apprenticeship as a Disney animator at CalArts in the early 1980s.[11] "One of my teachers had worked on the Disney version as one of the layout artists on the chase, and he brought in some layouts from it, so that was exciting. It was one of the things that maybe shaped what I like to do."[3] Burton worked with Walker on rewrites, but Rudin suggested that Tom Stoppard rewrite the script[12] to add to the comical aspects of Ichabod's bumbling mannerisms, and emphasize the character's romance with Katrina. His work went uncredited through the WGA screenwriting credit system.[5]
While Johnny Depp was Burton's first choice for the role of Ichabod Crane, Paramount required him to consider Brad Pitt, Liam Neeson and Daniel Day-Lewis.[7][13] Depp was cast in July 1998 for his third collaboration with Burton.[14] The actor wanted Ichabod to parallel Irving's description of the character in the short story. This included a long prosthetic snipe nose, huge ears, and elongated fingers. Paramount turned down his suggestions,[15] and after Depp read Tom Stoppard's rewrite of the script, he was inspired to take the character even further. "I always thought of Ichabod as a very delicate, fragile person who was maybe a little too in touch with his feminine side, like a frightened little girl," Depp explained.[5] He did not wish to portray the character as a typical action star would have, and instead took inspiration by Angela Lansbury's performance in Death on the Nile.[5] "It's good," Burton reasoned, "because I'm not the greatest action director in the world, and he's not the greatest action star."[8] Depp modeled Ichabod's detective personality from Basil Rathbone in the 1939 Sherlock Holmes film series. He also studied Roddy McDowall's acting for additional influence.[15] Burton added that "the idea was to try and find an elegance in action of the kind that Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing or Vincent Price had."[8] Christina Ricci, who worked with producer Scott Rudin on The Addams Family, was cast as Katrina Van Tassel.[7] Sleepy Hollow also reunited Burton with Jeffrey Jones (from Beetlejuice and Ed Wood) as Reverent Steenwyck, Christopher Walken (Max Schreck in Batman Returns) as the Hessian Horseman, Martin Landau (Ed Wood) in a cameo role, and Hammer veteran Michael Gough (Alfred in Burton's Batman films), whom Burton tempted out of retirement.[8] The Hammer influence was further confirmed by the casting of Christopher Lee in a small cameo.[16]
Filming[edit]
Supervised by Heinrichs, the town of Sleepy Hollow was constructed around a small duck pond. At a cost estimated at $1.3 million, and over a period of four months, 12 structures were built, several with detailed interiors, as well as exteriors.[3]
The original intention had been to shoot Sleepy Hollow predominantly on location with a $30 million budget.[17] Towns were scouted throughout Upstate New York along the Hudson Valley,[3] and the filmmakers decided on Tarrytown[9] for an October 1998 start date.[14] The Historic Hudson Valley organization assisted in scouting locations, which included the Philipsburg Manor House and forests in the Rockefeller State Park Preserve.[4] "They had a wonderful quality to them," production designer Rick Heinrichs reflected on the locations, "but it wasn't quite lending itself to the sort of expressionism that we were going for, which wanted to express the feeling of foreboding."[18] Disappointed, the filmmakers scouted locations in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and considered using Dutch colonial villages and period town recreations in the Northeastern United States. When no suitable existing location could be found, coupled with a lack of readily available studio space in the New York area needed to house the production's large number of sets, producer Scott Rudin suggested England.[3]
Rudin believed England offered the level of craftsmanship in period detail, painting, and costuming that was suitable for the film's design.[19] Having directed Batman entirely in England, Burton agreed, and designers from Batman's art department were employed by Paramount for Sleepy Hollow.[8] As a result, principal photography was pushed back[20] to November 20, 1998 at Leavesden Film Studios, which had been recently vacated by Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.[17] The majority of filming took place at Leavesden, with studio other work at Shepperton Studios,[3] where the massive Tree of the Dead set was built using Stage H.[5] Production then moved to the Hambleden Estate at Lime Tree Valley for a month-long shoot in March, where the town of Sleepy Hollow was constructed.[3] "We came to England figuring we would find a perfect little town," producer Adam Schroeder recalled, "and then we had to build it anyway." Filming in England continued through April,[3] and a few last minute scenes were shot using a sound stage in Yonkers, New York the following May.[4][21] The credits thank the people of the 'Town of Hertsfordhire, London, England' and list this non-existent place as a location.
Design[edit]
The Tree of the Dead, designed by Keith Short[22]
Responsible for the film's production design was Rick Heinrichs, who Burton intended to use on Superman Lives. While the production crew was always going to build a substantial number of sets, the decision was taken early on that to fulfill Burton's vision best would necessitate shooting Sleepy Hollow in a totally controlled environment at Leavesden Film Studios.[23] The production design was influenced by Burton's love for Hammer Film Productions and Black Sunday—particularly the supernatural feel they evoked as a result of being filmed primarily on sound stages. Heinrichs was also influenced by American colonial architecture, German Expressionism, Dr. Seuss illustrations, and Hammer's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave.[7] One sound stage at Leavesden was dedicated to the "Forest to Field" set, for the scene in which the Headless Horseman races out of the woods and into a field. This stage was then transformed into, variously, a graveyard, a corn field, a field of harvested wheat, a churchyard, and a snowy battlefield. In addition, a small backlot area was devoted to a New York City street and waterfront tank.[17]
Cinematography[edit]
Burton was impressed by the cinematography in Great Expectations, and hired Emmanuel Lubezki as Sleepy Hollow's director of photography. Initially, Lubezki and Burton contemplated shooting the film in black and white and in old square Academy ratio. When that proved unfeasible, they opted for an almost monochromatic effect which would enhance the fantasy aspect.[8] Burton and Lubezki intentionally planned the over-dependency of smoke and soft lighting to accompany the film's sole wide-angle lens strategy. Lubezki also used Hammer horror[24] and Mexican lucha films from the 1960s, such as Santo Contra los Zombis and Santo vs. las Mujeres Vampiro.[7] Lighting effects increased the dynamic energy of the Headless Horseman, while the contrast of the film stock was increased in post-production to add to the monochromatic feel.[24]
Leavesden Studios, a converted airplane factory, presented problems because of its relatively low ceilings. This was less of an issue for The Phantom Menace, in which set height was generally achieved by digital means. "Our visual choices get channeled," Heinrichs elaborated, "so you end up with liabilities that you tend to exploit as virtues. When you've got a certain ceiling height, and you're dealing with painted backings, you need to push atmosphere and diffusion."[17] This was particularly the case in several exteriors that were built on sound stages. "We would mitigate the disadvantages by hiding lights with teasers and smoke."[17]
Visual effects[edit]
The majority of Sleepy Hollow's 150 visual effects shots were handled by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM),[25] while Kevin Yagher supervised the human and creature effects. Framestore also assisted on digital effects, and The Mill handled motion control photography.[26] In part a reaction to the computer-generated effects in Mars Attacks!, Burton opted to use as limited an amount of digital effects as possible.[8] Ray Park, who served as the Headless Horseman stunt double, wore a blue ski mask for the chroma key effect, digitally removed by ILM.[12] Burton and Heinrichs applied to Sleepy Hollow many of the techniques they had used in stop motion animation on Vincent—such as forced perspective sets.[23]
The windmill was a 60-foot-tall forced-perspective exterior (visible to highway travelers miles away), a base and rooftop set and a quarter-scale miniature. The interior of the mill, which was about 30-feet high and 25-feet wide, featured wooden gears equipped with mechanisms for grinding flour. A wider view of the windmill was rendered on a Leavesden soundstage set with a quarter-scale windmill, complete with rotating vanes, painted sky backdrop and special-effects fire. "It was scary for the actors who were having burning wood explode at them," Heinrichs recalled. "There were controls in place and people standing by with hoses, of course, but there's always a chance of something going wrong."[27] For the final shot of the burning mill exploding, the quarter-scale windmill and painted backdrop were erected against the outside wall of the "flight shed", a spacious hangar on the far side of Leavesden Studios. The hangar's interior walls were knocked down to create a 450-foot run, with a 40-foot width still allowing for coach and cameras. Heinrichs tailored the sets so cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki could shoot from above without seeing the end of the stage.[27]
Actor Ian McDiarmid, who portrayed Dr. Lancaster, had just finished another Leavesden production with Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He compared the aesthetics of the two films, stating that physical sets helped the actors get into a natural frame of mind. "Having come from the blue-screen world of Star Wars it was wonderful to see gigantic, beautifully made perspective sets and wonderful clothes, and also people recreating a world. It's like the way movies used to be done."[19]
Musical score[edit]
Main article: Sleepy Hollow (soundtrack)
The film score was written and produced by Danny Elfman.
Release[edit]
To promote Sleepy Hollow, Paramount Pictures featured the film's trailer at San Diego Comic-Con International in August 1999.[28] The following October, the studio launched a website, which Variety described as being the "most ambitious online launch of a motion picture to date."[29] The site (sleepyhollowmovie.com) offered visitors live video chats with several of the filmmakers hosted by Yahoo! Movies and enabled them to send postcards, view photos, trailers and a six-minute behind-the-scenes featurette edited from a broadcast that aired on Entertainment Tonight. Extensive tours of 10 sets where offered, where visitors were able to roam around photographs, including the sets for the entire town of Sleepy Hollow, forest, church, graveyard and covered bridge. Arthur Cohen, president of worldwide marketing for Paramount, explained that the "Web-friendly" pre-release reports[29] from websites such as Ain't It Cool News and Dark Horizons[30][31] encouraged the studio to create the site.[29] In the weeks pre-dating the release of Sleepy Hollow, a toy line was marketed by McFarlane Toys.[32] Simon & Schuster also published The Art of Sleepy Hollow (ISBN 0671036572), which included the film's screenplay and an introduction by Tim Burton.[33] A novelization, also published by Simon & Schuster, was written by Peter Lerangis.[34]
Sleepy Hollow was released in the United States on November 19, 1999 in 3,069 theaters, grossing $30,060,467 in its opening weekend[2] at the #2 spot behind The World Is Not Enough.[35] Sleepy Hollow eventually earned $101,071,502 in domestic gross, and $105 million in foreign sales, coming to a worldwide total of $206,071,502.[2] David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family criticized the film's financial success from the exaggeration of gore. "The real impact is not so much that violent images create violent behavior," Walsh explained, "but that they create an atmosphere of disrespect." Burton addressed the concerns as a matter of opinion. "Everyone has a different perception of things. When I was a kid," Burton continued, "I was probably more scared by seeing John Wayne or Barbra Streisand on the big screen than by seeing violence."[36]
Paramount Home Video first released Sleepy Hollow on DVD in the United States on May 23, 2000.[37] The HD DVD release came in July 2006,[38] while the film was released on Blu-ray Disc two years later, in June 2008.[39]
Reception[edit]
Based on 124 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of the critics enjoyed Sleepy Hollow with an average score of 6.3/10.[40] By comparison, Metacritic calculated an average score of 65/100, based on 35 collated reviews.[41] Roger Ebert praised Johnny Depp's performance and Tim Burton's methods of visual design. "Johnny Depp is an actor able to disappear into characters," Ebert continued, "never more readily than in one of Burton's films."[42] In a positive review for Time magazine, Richard Corliss called Sleepy Hollow "Burton's richest, prettiest, weirdest [film] since Batman Returns. The simple story bends to his twists, freeing him for an exercise in high style."[43]
David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor praised Burton's filmmaking and the high-spirited acting of cast, but believed Andrew Kevin Walker's writing was too repetitious and formulaic for the third act.[44] "You go into a Tim Burton film wanting to be transported, but Sleepy Hollow is little more than a lavish, art-directed slasher movie." Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly wrote Sleepy Hollow is "a choppily plotted crowd-pleaser that lacks the seductive, freakazoid alchemy of Burton's best work." Gleiberman compared the film to The Mummy, and said "it feels like every high-powered action climax of the last 10 years. Personally, I'd rather see Burton so intoxicated by a movie that he lost his head."[45]
Jonathan Rosenbaum from the Chicago Reader called Sleepy Hollow "a ravishing visual experience, a pretty good vehicle for some talented American and English actors," but concluded that the film was a missed opportunity to depict an actual representation of the short story. "Burton's fidelity is exclusively to the period feeling he gets from disreputable Hammer horror films and a few images culled from Ichabod and Mr. Toad. When it comes to one of America's great stories, Burton obviously couldn't care less."[46] Mick LaSalle, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, criticized Burton's perceived image as a creative artist. "All Sleepy Hollow has going for it is art direction, and even in that it falls back on cliché."[47]
Accolades[edit]
Awarding body
Award
Nominee(s)
Result
Academy Awards[48] Best Art Direction Rick Heinrichs, Peter Young Won
Best Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki Nominated
Best Costume Design Colleen Atwood Nominated
BAFTA Film Awards[49] Best Costume Design Won
Best Production Design Rick Heinrichs Won
Best Visual Effects Jim Mitchell, Kevin Yagher, Joss Williams, Paddy Eason Nominated
Satellite Awards[50] Best Art Direction and Production Design Rick Heinrichs Won
Best Original Score Danny Elfman Won
Best Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki Won
Best Costume Design Colleen Atwood Won
Best Sound Gary Alper, Skip Lievsay, Frank Morrone Won
Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Johnny Depp Nominated
Best Visual Effects Jim Mitchell, Kevin Yagher, Joss Williams, Paddy Eason Nominated
Best Editing Chris Lebenzon Nominated
Saturn Awards[51] Best Actress Christina Ricci Won
Best Music Danny Elfman Won
Best Horror Film Nominated
Best Direction Tim Burton Nominated
Best Writing Andrew Kevin Walker Nominated
Best Actor Johnny Depp Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Christopher Walken Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Miranda Richardson Nominated
Best Costume Design Collen Atwood Nominated
Make-up Kevin Yagher, Peter Owen Nominated
Best Special Effects Jim Mitchell, Joss Williams, Kevin Yagher, Mark S. Miller Nominated
MTV Movie Awards[52] Best Villain Christopher Walken Nominated
BMI Film & Television Awards BMI Film Music Award Danny Elfman Won
Sleepy Hollow was also a contender for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but ultimately was not nominated.[25]
American Film Institute recognition:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains: The Headless Horseman – Nominated Villain[53]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Credits". BFI Film & Television Database. London: British Film Institute.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Sleepy Hollow". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Burton, Salisbury, pp. 161–169
4.^ Jump up to: a b c Todd Shapera (1999-10-24). "The Legend Continues; In a Cluster of New Films This Fall, Washington Irving's Classic Rides Again". The New York Times.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Chris Nashawaty (1999-11-19). "A Head of its Time". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
6.Jump up ^ Kim Newman (January 2000). "The Cage of Reason". Sight and Sound.
7.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Mark Salisbury (November 1999). "Grayveyard Shift". Fangoria.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Burton, Salisbury, pp. 177–183
9.^ Jump up to: a b Staff (1998-06-17). "Burton eyes 'Hollow'; Rodman wrestles". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
10.Jump up ^ Gene Seymour (1998-11-17). "Headless In Hollywood". Newsday.
11.^ Jump up to: a b Bernard Weinraub (1999-11-19). "At the Movies". The New York Times.
12.^ Jump up to: a b David Mills (February 2000). "One on One: Tim Burton". Total Film. pp. 50–56.
13.Jump up ^ David Hochman (1998-07-09). "Brad Pitt may star in the new Tim Burton film". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
14.^ Jump up to: a b Andrew Hindes (1998-07-15). "Depp to ride in 'Hollow'". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
15.^ Jump up to: a b Rob Blackwelder (1999-11-12). "Deppth Perception". SPLICEDwire.com. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
16.Jump up ^ Mark Salisbury (1999-12-17). "The American Nightmare". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
17.^ Jump up to: a b c d e John Calhoun (November 1999). "Headless in Sleepy Hollow". Entertainment Design.
18.Jump up ^ Staff (2000-02-23). "From the drafting board: Rick Heinrichs". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
19.^ Jump up to: a b Matt Wolf (1999-04-11). "'Sleepy Hollow,' on the Thames". The New York Times.
20.Jump up ^ Andrew Hindes (1998-11-11). "Mandalay's 'Sleepy'". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
21.Jump up ^ Staff (1999-11-11). "Shooting in town". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
22.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow". KeithShortSculptor.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
23.^ Jump up to: a b Burton, Salisbury, pp. 170–176
24.^ Jump up to: a b Staff (2000-01-17). "Cinematographer's Journal". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
25.^ Jump up to: a b Marc Graser (2000-01-02). "Seven pics make the cut in Oscar f/x nominee race". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
26.Jump up ^ Karl Cohen (September 1999). "More ILM Work Will Be In Theaters This Year". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
27.^ Jump up to: a b Denise Abbott (2000-02-29). "Entertainment By Design". The Hollywood Reporter.
28.Jump up ^ Amid Amidi (September 1999). "San Diego Comic-Con '99: More Than Fat, Sweaty Guys". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
29.^ Jump up to: a b c Marc Graser (1999-11-01). "Par gets peppy with 'Sleepy' online". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
30.Jump up ^ Marc Graser (1999-10-19). ".Com before storm". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
31.Jump up ^ Drew McWeeny (1998-08-26). "Moriarty Reports On Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
32.Jump up ^ David Kilmer (1999-11-19). "McFarlane Toys releases Sleepy Hollow figures". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
33.Jump up ^ "The Art of Sleepy Hollow". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
34.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow: A Novelization". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
35.Jump up ^ Dade Hayes (1999-11-21). "B.O. shaken, stirred by Bond". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
36.Jump up ^ Liane Bornin (1999-12-09). "Little Shot of Horror". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
37.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
38.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow (HD DVD)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
39.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow (Blu-ray)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
40.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
41.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow". Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
42.Jump up ^ Roger Ebert (1999-11-19). "Sleepy Hollow". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
43.Jump up ^ Richard Corliss (1999-11-22). "Tim Burton's Tricky Treat". Time. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
44.Jump up ^ David Sterritt (1999-11-19). "New Releases". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 2000-02-29. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
45.Jump up ^ Owen Gleiberman (1999-11-26). "Dead Heads". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
46.Jump up ^ Jonathan Rosenbaum (1999-11-26). "Hollow Rendition [on Sleepy Hollow]". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2010-11-07.
47.Jump up ^ Mick LaSalle (1999-11-19). "`Sleepy Hollow' a Yawner". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-11-07.
48.Jump up ^ "Oscar winners in full". BBC Online. 2000-03-27. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
49.Jump up ^ "Full list of BAFTA winners". BBC Online. 2000-04-09. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
50.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162661/awards
51.Jump up ^ "Past Award Winners". Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
52.Jump up ^ "1999 MTV Movie Awards". MTV Movie Awards. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
53.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains Nominees
Further reading[edit]
Tim Burton (2006). Mark Salisbury, ed. Burton on Burton. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-5122-925-3 Check |isbn= value (help).
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sleepy Hollow (film)
Sleepy Hollow at the Internet Movie Database
Sleepy Hollow at AllRovi
Sleepy Hollow at Rotten Tomatoes
Sleepy Hollow at Metacritic
Sleepy Hollow at Box Office Mojo
Tim Burton interview by Charlie Rose
Stephen Pizzello (December 1999). "Galloping Ghost". American Cinematographer.
Tom Kenny (1999-12-01). "Sound FX for 'Sleepy Hollow': Heads Will Roll, Horses Will Run". Mix.
The sword from “Sleepy Hollow”
[show]
v·
t·
e
Tim Burton
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
Tim Burton by Gage Skidmore.jpg
·
·
·
·
·
·
[show]
v·
t·
e
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
[show]
v·
t·
e
Francis Ford Coppola
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
[show]
v·
t·
e
Works produced by Scott Rudin
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Categories: 1999 films
English-language films
1999 horror films
German films
American films
American horror films
German horror films
American Zoetrope films
Detective films
Films directed by Tim Burton
Films set in New York
Films set in the 1790s
Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award
Ghost films
Paramount Pictures films
Romantic period films
Witchcraft in film
Gothic horror films
Mandalay Pictures films
Works based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Navigation menu
Create account
Log in
Article
Talk
Read
Edit
View history
Search
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
Print/export
Languages
العربية
Azərbaycanca
Български
Català
Česky
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
Hrvatski
Italiano
עברית
Magyar
Монгол
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Simple English
Српски / srpski
Suomi
Svenska
Türkçe
Українська
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 5 November 2013 at 22:04.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
Sleepy Hollow (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy hollow ver2.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Tim Burton
Produced by
Scott Rudin
Adam Schroeder
Screenplay by
Andrew Kevin Walker
Story by
Andrew Kevin Walker
Kevin Yagher
Based on
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
by Washington Irving
Starring
Johnny Depp
Christina Ricci
Miranda Richardson
Michael Gambon
Casper Van Dien
Jeffrey Jones
Christopher Lee
Music by
Danny Elfman
Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki
Editing by
Chris Lebenzon
Joel Negron
Studio
Paramount Pictures
Mandalay Pictures
American Zoetrope
Karol Film Productions[1]
Tim Burton Productions
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)
November 17, 1999 (premiere)
November 19, 1999 (United States)
Running time
105 minutes[2]
Country
United States
Germany
Language
English
Budget
$100 million[2]
Box office
$206,071,502[2]
Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American-German horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely inspired by the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and stars Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, with Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, and Jeffrey Jones in supporting roles. The plot follows police constable Ichabod Crane (Depp) sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders in the village of Sleepy Hollow by a mysterious Headless Horseman.
It is the first film by Mandalay Pictures. Development began in 1993 at Paramount Pictures with Kevin Yagher originally set to direct Andrew Kevin Walker's script as a low-budget slasher film. Disagreements with Paramount resulted in Yagher being demoted to prosthetic makeup designer, and Burton was hired to direct in June 1998. Filming took place from November 1998 to May 1999, and Sleepy Hollow was released to generally favorable reviews from critics, and grossed approximately $207 million worldwide. Production designer Rick Heinrichs and set decorator Peter Young won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Though the film's screenplay is credited to Andrew Kevin Walker, the majority of it was actually ghostwritten by Tom Stoppard.
Contents
[hide] 1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Development
3.2 Filming
3.3 Design 3.3.1 Cinematography
3.3.2 Visual effects
3.4 Musical score
4 Release 4.1 Reception
4.2 Accolades
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Plot[edit]
Ichabod Crane is a 24-year-old New York City police officer in 1799. Facing imprisonment for going against traditional methods and favoring forensic investigation techniques such as finger-printing and autopsies not considered to be orthodox at that time and considered unimportant, Ichabod submits to deployment with his bag of tools to the Westchester County hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, New York, which has been plagued by a series of brutal slayings in which the victims have been found decapitated: Peter Van Garrett, wealthy farmer and landowner; his son Dirk; and the widow Emily Winship. Arriving in Sleepy Hollow, Crane is informed by the town's elders that the killer is not of flesh and blood, but rather an undead headless Hessian mercenary from the American Revolutionary War who rides at night on a massive black steed in search of his missing head.
At a funeral for one of the victims, young Masbath's father, Magistrate Phillipse tells Crane that although there are now four graves, there are five victims. After exhuming the bodies, Crane discovers that the Widow Winship was with child at the time of her murder.
Crane begins his investigation, remaining highly skeptical about the supernatural elements in the case until he actually encounters the Headless Horseman himself, who kills the Magistrate Samuel Phillipse on sight. Boarding in a room at the home of the town's richest family and the Van Garretts' next of kin, the Van Tassels, Crane develops an attraction to their daughter Katrina (an attraction deeply resented by Brom van Brunt, a suitor to Katrina), while he is plagued by nightmares of his mother's horrific torture when he was a child. Brom attempts to frighten Crane away by posing as the Headless Horseman, but is himself killed by the real Horseman. Riding into the Western Woods with the orphaned Young Masbath, son of the Horseman's fifth victim, they come across the cave dwelling of a reclusive sorceress. She reveals the location of the gnarled Tree of the Dead, which marks the Horseman's grave, as well as his portal into the natural world from the supernatural.
Crane discovers that the ground is freshly disturbed and, digging through, discovers the Horseman's skeleton and that the skull is missing; he hypothesizes that someone is controlling the Horseman. Just then, the Horseman's ghost bursts out of the tree and gallops towards Sleepy Hollow. Crane attempts to follow but winds up lost. Meanwhile,the midwife and her family are murdered by the Horseman, and a town council is held in the town church. Baltus, calling to Lady Van Tassel, flees when he sees the Horseman galloping towards her with sword drawn. Baltus arrives at the church and informs Katrina that her stepmother is dead, just as the Horseman arrives at the church. With the men firing muskets at the Horseman as he circles the church, Crane realizes the Horseman can't enter the church grounds due to some protective supernatural force. A massive fight breaks out in the church when Dr. Thomas Lancaster suggests confessing for forgiveness, and then Lancaster is killed by Reverend Steenwyck, who is in turn shot by a frightened Baltus. The chaos ends only when the Horseman harpoons Baltus through a church window using a pointed church fence post attached to a rope, dragging him out and acquiring his head. Katrina faints at the sight of her father's murder, and Crane discovers she has drawn an occult symbol on the floor. Believing he has solved the case (he names Katrina as the one who controlled the Horseman), Crane prepares to leave Sleepy Hollow.
Crane becomes suspicious when the corpse of Lady Van Tassel has too fresh a wound on her palm for one already dead. His suspicions are confirmed to be right when the Lady van Tassel emerges, alive, from the dark and shocks her step-daughter Katrina into a faint.
Katrina awakens and eventually uncovers a murky plot revolving around revenge on the Van Garretts and land rights with the Horseman controlled by Katrina's stepmother Lady Van Tassel, who sends the supernatural killer after Katrina now to solidify her hold on what she considers her property, a piece of land unjustly claimed by Baltus.
Following a fight in the local windmill and a stagecoach chase through the woods, Crane eventually thwarts Lady Van Tassel by throwing the skull to the Horseman, breaking the curse. The Horseman, no longer under Lady Van Tassel's control, hoists her up on his horse, then rides to Hell taking her with him, fulfilling her end of the deal with the Devil. With the Headless Horseman menace eradicated, Crane returns home to New York with Katrina and young Masbath, just in time for Christmas and the new century.
Cast[edit]
Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane
Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel
Miranda Richardson as Lady Van Tassel/Crone Sister
Michael Gambon as Baltus Van Tassel
Casper Van Dien as Brom Van Brunt
Jeffrey Jones as Reverend Steenwyck
Richard Griffiths as Magistrate Samuel Philipse
Ian McDiarmid as Dr. Thomas Lancaster
Michael Gough as Notary James Hardenbrook
Marc Pickering as Young Masbath, whose father was a victim of the Horseman
Christopher Walken and Ray Park as The Hessian/Headless Horseman
Claire Skinner as the Beth Killian, the Midwife
Steven Waddington as Killian, Beth's husband
Christopher Lee as the Burgomaster
Alun Armstrong as the High Constable
Martin Landau as Peter Van Garrett
Lisa Marie Smith as Lady Crane, Ichabod's mother
Peter Guinness as Lord Crane, Ichabod's father
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
In 1993, Kevin Yagher, a make-up effects designer who had turned to directing with Tales from the Crypt, had the notion to adapt Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" into a feature film. Through his agent, Yagher was introduced to Andrew Kevin Walker; they spent a few months working on a film treatment[3] that transformed Ichabod Crane as a schoolmaster from Connecticut to a banished New York City detective.[4] Yagher and Walker subsequently pitched Sleepy Hollow to various studios and production companies, eventually securing a deal with producer Scott Rudin,[3] who had been impressed with Walker's unproduced spec script for Seven.[5] Rudin optioned the project to Paramount Pictures in a deal that had Yagher set to direct, with Walker scripting; the pair would share story credit.[3] Following the completion of Hellraiser: Bloodline, Yahger had planned Sleepy Hollow as a low-budget production—"a pretentious slasher film with a spectacular murder every five minutes or so." Paramount disagreed on the concept and demoted Yagher's involvement to prosthetic makeup designer.[6] "They never really saw it as a commercial movie," producer Adam Schroeder noted. "The studio thinks 'old literary classic' and they think The Crucible. We started developing it before horror movies came back."[7]
Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing revived studio interest in 1998.[5] Schroeder, who shepherded Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands as a studio executive at 20th Century Fox in 1990, suggested that Burton direct the film.[8] Francis Ford Coppola's minimal production duties came from American Zoetrope; Burton only became aware of Coppola's involvement during the editing process when he was sent a copy of Sleepy Hollow's trailer and saw Coppola's name on it.[8] Burton, coming off the troubled production of Superman Lives, was hired to direct in June 1998.[9] "I had never really done something that was more of a horror film," he explained, "and it's funny, because those are the kind of movies that I like probably more than any other genre."[3] His interest in directing a horror film influenced by his love for Hammer Film Productions and Black Sunday—particularly the supernatural feel they evoked as a result of being filmed primarily on sound stages.[7] As a result, Sleepy Hollow is a homage to various Hammer Film Productions, including Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde,[10] and other films such as Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, various Roger Corman horror films,[11] Jason and the Argonauts, and Scream Blacula Scream.[5] The image of the Headless Horseman had fascinated Burton during his apprenticeship as a Disney animator at CalArts in the early 1980s.[11] "One of my teachers had worked on the Disney version as one of the layout artists on the chase, and he brought in some layouts from it, so that was exciting. It was one of the things that maybe shaped what I like to do."[3] Burton worked with Walker on rewrites, but Rudin suggested that Tom Stoppard rewrite the script[12] to add to the comical aspects of Ichabod's bumbling mannerisms, and emphasize the character's romance with Katrina. His work went uncredited through the WGA screenwriting credit system.[5]
While Johnny Depp was Burton's first choice for the role of Ichabod Crane, Paramount required him to consider Brad Pitt, Liam Neeson and Daniel Day-Lewis.[7][13] Depp was cast in July 1998 for his third collaboration with Burton.[14] The actor wanted Ichabod to parallel Irving's description of the character in the short story. This included a long prosthetic snipe nose, huge ears, and elongated fingers. Paramount turned down his suggestions,[15] and after Depp read Tom Stoppard's rewrite of the script, he was inspired to take the character even further. "I always thought of Ichabod as a very delicate, fragile person who was maybe a little too in touch with his feminine side, like a frightened little girl," Depp explained.[5] He did not wish to portray the character as a typical action star would have, and instead took inspiration by Angela Lansbury's performance in Death on the Nile.[5] "It's good," Burton reasoned, "because I'm not the greatest action director in the world, and he's not the greatest action star."[8] Depp modeled Ichabod's detective personality from Basil Rathbone in the 1939 Sherlock Holmes film series. He also studied Roddy McDowall's acting for additional influence.[15] Burton added that "the idea was to try and find an elegance in action of the kind that Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing or Vincent Price had."[8] Christina Ricci, who worked with producer Scott Rudin on The Addams Family, was cast as Katrina Van Tassel.[7] Sleepy Hollow also reunited Burton with Jeffrey Jones (from Beetlejuice and Ed Wood) as Reverent Steenwyck, Christopher Walken (Max Schreck in Batman Returns) as the Hessian Horseman, Martin Landau (Ed Wood) in a cameo role, and Hammer veteran Michael Gough (Alfred in Burton's Batman films), whom Burton tempted out of retirement.[8] The Hammer influence was further confirmed by the casting of Christopher Lee in a small cameo.[16]
Filming[edit]
Supervised by Heinrichs, the town of Sleepy Hollow was constructed around a small duck pond. At a cost estimated at $1.3 million, and over a period of four months, 12 structures were built, several with detailed interiors, as well as exteriors.[3]
The original intention had been to shoot Sleepy Hollow predominantly on location with a $30 million budget.[17] Towns were scouted throughout Upstate New York along the Hudson Valley,[3] and the filmmakers decided on Tarrytown[9] for an October 1998 start date.[14] The Historic Hudson Valley organization assisted in scouting locations, which included the Philipsburg Manor House and forests in the Rockefeller State Park Preserve.[4] "They had a wonderful quality to them," production designer Rick Heinrichs reflected on the locations, "but it wasn't quite lending itself to the sort of expressionism that we were going for, which wanted to express the feeling of foreboding."[18] Disappointed, the filmmakers scouted locations in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and considered using Dutch colonial villages and period town recreations in the Northeastern United States. When no suitable existing location could be found, coupled with a lack of readily available studio space in the New York area needed to house the production's large number of sets, producer Scott Rudin suggested England.[3]
Rudin believed England offered the level of craftsmanship in period detail, painting, and costuming that was suitable for the film's design.[19] Having directed Batman entirely in England, Burton agreed, and designers from Batman's art department were employed by Paramount for Sleepy Hollow.[8] As a result, principal photography was pushed back[20] to November 20, 1998 at Leavesden Film Studios, which had been recently vacated by Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.[17] The majority of filming took place at Leavesden, with studio other work at Shepperton Studios,[3] where the massive Tree of the Dead set was built using Stage H.[5] Production then moved to the Hambleden Estate at Lime Tree Valley for a month-long shoot in March, where the town of Sleepy Hollow was constructed.[3] "We came to England figuring we would find a perfect little town," producer Adam Schroeder recalled, "and then we had to build it anyway." Filming in England continued through April,[3] and a few last minute scenes were shot using a sound stage in Yonkers, New York the following May.[4][21] The credits thank the people of the 'Town of Hertsfordhire, London, England' and list this non-existent place as a location.
Design[edit]
The Tree of the Dead, designed by Keith Short[22]
Responsible for the film's production design was Rick Heinrichs, who Burton intended to use on Superman Lives. While the production crew was always going to build a substantial number of sets, the decision was taken early on that to fulfill Burton's vision best would necessitate shooting Sleepy Hollow in a totally controlled environment at Leavesden Film Studios.[23] The production design was influenced by Burton's love for Hammer Film Productions and Black Sunday—particularly the supernatural feel they evoked as a result of being filmed primarily on sound stages. Heinrichs was also influenced by American colonial architecture, German Expressionism, Dr. Seuss illustrations, and Hammer's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave.[7] One sound stage at Leavesden was dedicated to the "Forest to Field" set, for the scene in which the Headless Horseman races out of the woods and into a field. This stage was then transformed into, variously, a graveyard, a corn field, a field of harvested wheat, a churchyard, and a snowy battlefield. In addition, a small backlot area was devoted to a New York City street and waterfront tank.[17]
Cinematography[edit]
Burton was impressed by the cinematography in Great Expectations, and hired Emmanuel Lubezki as Sleepy Hollow's director of photography. Initially, Lubezki and Burton contemplated shooting the film in black and white and in old square Academy ratio. When that proved unfeasible, they opted for an almost monochromatic effect which would enhance the fantasy aspect.[8] Burton and Lubezki intentionally planned the over-dependency of smoke and soft lighting to accompany the film's sole wide-angle lens strategy. Lubezki also used Hammer horror[24] and Mexican lucha films from the 1960s, such as Santo Contra los Zombis and Santo vs. las Mujeres Vampiro.[7] Lighting effects increased the dynamic energy of the Headless Horseman, while the contrast of the film stock was increased in post-production to add to the monochromatic feel.[24]
Leavesden Studios, a converted airplane factory, presented problems because of its relatively low ceilings. This was less of an issue for The Phantom Menace, in which set height was generally achieved by digital means. "Our visual choices get channeled," Heinrichs elaborated, "so you end up with liabilities that you tend to exploit as virtues. When you've got a certain ceiling height, and you're dealing with painted backings, you need to push atmosphere and diffusion."[17] This was particularly the case in several exteriors that were built on sound stages. "We would mitigate the disadvantages by hiding lights with teasers and smoke."[17]
Visual effects[edit]
The majority of Sleepy Hollow's 150 visual effects shots were handled by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM),[25] while Kevin Yagher supervised the human and creature effects. Framestore also assisted on digital effects, and The Mill handled motion control photography.[26] In part a reaction to the computer-generated effects in Mars Attacks!, Burton opted to use as limited an amount of digital effects as possible.[8] Ray Park, who served as the Headless Horseman stunt double, wore a blue ski mask for the chroma key effect, digitally removed by ILM.[12] Burton and Heinrichs applied to Sleepy Hollow many of the techniques they had used in stop motion animation on Vincent—such as forced perspective sets.[23]
The windmill was a 60-foot-tall forced-perspective exterior (visible to highway travelers miles away), a base and rooftop set and a quarter-scale miniature. The interior of the mill, which was about 30-feet high and 25-feet wide, featured wooden gears equipped with mechanisms for grinding flour. A wider view of the windmill was rendered on a Leavesden soundstage set with a quarter-scale windmill, complete with rotating vanes, painted sky backdrop and special-effects fire. "It was scary for the actors who were having burning wood explode at them," Heinrichs recalled. "There were controls in place and people standing by with hoses, of course, but there's always a chance of something going wrong."[27] For the final shot of the burning mill exploding, the quarter-scale windmill and painted backdrop were erected against the outside wall of the "flight shed", a spacious hangar on the far side of Leavesden Studios. The hangar's interior walls were knocked down to create a 450-foot run, with a 40-foot width still allowing for coach and cameras. Heinrichs tailored the sets so cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki could shoot from above without seeing the end of the stage.[27]
Actor Ian McDiarmid, who portrayed Dr. Lancaster, had just finished another Leavesden production with Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He compared the aesthetics of the two films, stating that physical sets helped the actors get into a natural frame of mind. "Having come from the blue-screen world of Star Wars it was wonderful to see gigantic, beautifully made perspective sets and wonderful clothes, and also people recreating a world. It's like the way movies used to be done."[19]
Musical score[edit]
Main article: Sleepy Hollow (soundtrack)
The film score was written and produced by Danny Elfman.
Release[edit]
To promote Sleepy Hollow, Paramount Pictures featured the film's trailer at San Diego Comic-Con International in August 1999.[28] The following October, the studio launched a website, which Variety described as being the "most ambitious online launch of a motion picture to date."[29] The site (sleepyhollowmovie.com) offered visitors live video chats with several of the filmmakers hosted by Yahoo! Movies and enabled them to send postcards, view photos, trailers and a six-minute behind-the-scenes featurette edited from a broadcast that aired on Entertainment Tonight. Extensive tours of 10 sets where offered, where visitors were able to roam around photographs, including the sets for the entire town of Sleepy Hollow, forest, church, graveyard and covered bridge. Arthur Cohen, president of worldwide marketing for Paramount, explained that the "Web-friendly" pre-release reports[29] from websites such as Ain't It Cool News and Dark Horizons[30][31] encouraged the studio to create the site.[29] In the weeks pre-dating the release of Sleepy Hollow, a toy line was marketed by McFarlane Toys.[32] Simon & Schuster also published The Art of Sleepy Hollow (ISBN 0671036572), which included the film's screenplay and an introduction by Tim Burton.[33] A novelization, also published by Simon & Schuster, was written by Peter Lerangis.[34]
Sleepy Hollow was released in the United States on November 19, 1999 in 3,069 theaters, grossing $30,060,467 in its opening weekend[2] at the #2 spot behind The World Is Not Enough.[35] Sleepy Hollow eventually earned $101,071,502 in domestic gross, and $105 million in foreign sales, coming to a worldwide total of $206,071,502.[2] David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family criticized the film's financial success from the exaggeration of gore. "The real impact is not so much that violent images create violent behavior," Walsh explained, "but that they create an atmosphere of disrespect." Burton addressed the concerns as a matter of opinion. "Everyone has a different perception of things. When I was a kid," Burton continued, "I was probably more scared by seeing John Wayne or Barbra Streisand on the big screen than by seeing violence."[36]
Paramount Home Video first released Sleepy Hollow on DVD in the United States on May 23, 2000.[37] The HD DVD release came in July 2006,[38] while the film was released on Blu-ray Disc two years later, in June 2008.[39]
Reception[edit]
Based on 124 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of the critics enjoyed Sleepy Hollow with an average score of 6.3/10.[40] By comparison, Metacritic calculated an average score of 65/100, based on 35 collated reviews.[41] Roger Ebert praised Johnny Depp's performance and Tim Burton's methods of visual design. "Johnny Depp is an actor able to disappear into characters," Ebert continued, "never more readily than in one of Burton's films."[42] In a positive review for Time magazine, Richard Corliss called Sleepy Hollow "Burton's richest, prettiest, weirdest [film] since Batman Returns. The simple story bends to his twists, freeing him for an exercise in high style."[43]
David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor praised Burton's filmmaking and the high-spirited acting of cast, but believed Andrew Kevin Walker's writing was too repetitious and formulaic for the third act.[44] "You go into a Tim Burton film wanting to be transported, but Sleepy Hollow is little more than a lavish, art-directed slasher movie." Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly wrote Sleepy Hollow is "a choppily plotted crowd-pleaser that lacks the seductive, freakazoid alchemy of Burton's best work." Gleiberman compared the film to The Mummy, and said "it feels like every high-powered action climax of the last 10 years. Personally, I'd rather see Burton so intoxicated by a movie that he lost his head."[45]
Jonathan Rosenbaum from the Chicago Reader called Sleepy Hollow "a ravishing visual experience, a pretty good vehicle for some talented American and English actors," but concluded that the film was a missed opportunity to depict an actual representation of the short story. "Burton's fidelity is exclusively to the period feeling he gets from disreputable Hammer horror films and a few images culled from Ichabod and Mr. Toad. When it comes to one of America's great stories, Burton obviously couldn't care less."[46] Mick LaSalle, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, criticized Burton's perceived image as a creative artist. "All Sleepy Hollow has going for it is art direction, and even in that it falls back on cliché."[47]
Accolades[edit]
Awarding body
Award
Nominee(s)
Result
Academy Awards[48] Best Art Direction Rick Heinrichs, Peter Young Won
Best Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki Nominated
Best Costume Design Colleen Atwood Nominated
BAFTA Film Awards[49] Best Costume Design Won
Best Production Design Rick Heinrichs Won
Best Visual Effects Jim Mitchell, Kevin Yagher, Joss Williams, Paddy Eason Nominated
Satellite Awards[50] Best Art Direction and Production Design Rick Heinrichs Won
Best Original Score Danny Elfman Won
Best Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki Won
Best Costume Design Colleen Atwood Won
Best Sound Gary Alper, Skip Lievsay, Frank Morrone Won
Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Johnny Depp Nominated
Best Visual Effects Jim Mitchell, Kevin Yagher, Joss Williams, Paddy Eason Nominated
Best Editing Chris Lebenzon Nominated
Saturn Awards[51] Best Actress Christina Ricci Won
Best Music Danny Elfman Won
Best Horror Film Nominated
Best Direction Tim Burton Nominated
Best Writing Andrew Kevin Walker Nominated
Best Actor Johnny Depp Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Christopher Walken Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Miranda Richardson Nominated
Best Costume Design Collen Atwood Nominated
Make-up Kevin Yagher, Peter Owen Nominated
Best Special Effects Jim Mitchell, Joss Williams, Kevin Yagher, Mark S. Miller Nominated
MTV Movie Awards[52] Best Villain Christopher Walken Nominated
BMI Film & Television Awards BMI Film Music Award Danny Elfman Won
Sleepy Hollow was also a contender for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but ultimately was not nominated.[25]
American Film Institute recognition:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains: The Headless Horseman – Nominated Villain[53]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Credits". BFI Film & Television Database. London: British Film Institute.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Sleepy Hollow". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Burton, Salisbury, pp. 161–169
4.^ Jump up to: a b c Todd Shapera (1999-10-24). "The Legend Continues; In a Cluster of New Films This Fall, Washington Irving's Classic Rides Again". The New York Times.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Chris Nashawaty (1999-11-19). "A Head of its Time". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
6.Jump up ^ Kim Newman (January 2000). "The Cage of Reason". Sight and Sound.
7.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Mark Salisbury (November 1999). "Grayveyard Shift". Fangoria.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Burton, Salisbury, pp. 177–183
9.^ Jump up to: a b Staff (1998-06-17). "Burton eyes 'Hollow'; Rodman wrestles". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
10.Jump up ^ Gene Seymour (1998-11-17). "Headless In Hollywood". Newsday.
11.^ Jump up to: a b Bernard Weinraub (1999-11-19). "At the Movies". The New York Times.
12.^ Jump up to: a b David Mills (February 2000). "One on One: Tim Burton". Total Film. pp. 50–56.
13.Jump up ^ David Hochman (1998-07-09). "Brad Pitt may star in the new Tim Burton film". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
14.^ Jump up to: a b Andrew Hindes (1998-07-15). "Depp to ride in 'Hollow'". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
15.^ Jump up to: a b Rob Blackwelder (1999-11-12). "Deppth Perception". SPLICEDwire.com. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
16.Jump up ^ Mark Salisbury (1999-12-17). "The American Nightmare". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
17.^ Jump up to: a b c d e John Calhoun (November 1999). "Headless in Sleepy Hollow". Entertainment Design.
18.Jump up ^ Staff (2000-02-23). "From the drafting board: Rick Heinrichs". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
19.^ Jump up to: a b Matt Wolf (1999-04-11). "'Sleepy Hollow,' on the Thames". The New York Times.
20.Jump up ^ Andrew Hindes (1998-11-11). "Mandalay's 'Sleepy'". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
21.Jump up ^ Staff (1999-11-11). "Shooting in town". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
22.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow". KeithShortSculptor.com. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
23.^ Jump up to: a b Burton, Salisbury, pp. 170–176
24.^ Jump up to: a b Staff (2000-01-17). "Cinematographer's Journal". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
25.^ Jump up to: a b Marc Graser (2000-01-02). "Seven pics make the cut in Oscar f/x nominee race". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
26.Jump up ^ Karl Cohen (September 1999). "More ILM Work Will Be In Theaters This Year". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
27.^ Jump up to: a b Denise Abbott (2000-02-29). "Entertainment By Design". The Hollywood Reporter.
28.Jump up ^ Amid Amidi (September 1999). "San Diego Comic-Con '99: More Than Fat, Sweaty Guys". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
29.^ Jump up to: a b c Marc Graser (1999-11-01). "Par gets peppy with 'Sleepy' online". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
30.Jump up ^ Marc Graser (1999-10-19). ".Com before storm". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
31.Jump up ^ Drew McWeeny (1998-08-26). "Moriarty Reports On Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
32.Jump up ^ David Kilmer (1999-11-19). "McFarlane Toys releases Sleepy Hollow figures". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
33.Jump up ^ "The Art of Sleepy Hollow". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
34.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow: A Novelization". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
35.Jump up ^ Dade Hayes (1999-11-21). "B.O. shaken, stirred by Bond". Variety. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
36.Jump up ^ Liane Bornin (1999-12-09). "Little Shot of Horror". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
37.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
38.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow (HD DVD)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
39.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow (Blu-ray)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
40.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
41.Jump up ^ "Sleepy Hollow". Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
42.Jump up ^ Roger Ebert (1999-11-19). "Sleepy Hollow". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
43.Jump up ^ Richard Corliss (1999-11-22). "Tim Burton's Tricky Treat". Time. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
44.Jump up ^ David Sterritt (1999-11-19). "New Releases". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 2000-02-29. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
45.Jump up ^ Owen Gleiberman (1999-11-26). "Dead Heads". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
46.Jump up ^ Jonathan Rosenbaum (1999-11-26). "Hollow Rendition [on Sleepy Hollow]". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2010-11-07.
47.Jump up ^ Mick LaSalle (1999-11-19). "`Sleepy Hollow' a Yawner". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-11-07.
48.Jump up ^ "Oscar winners in full". BBC Online. 2000-03-27. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
49.Jump up ^ "Full list of BAFTA winners". BBC Online. 2000-04-09. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
50.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162661/awards
51.Jump up ^ "Past Award Winners". Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
52.Jump up ^ "1999 MTV Movie Awards". MTV Movie Awards. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
53.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains Nominees
Further reading[edit]
Tim Burton (2006). Mark Salisbury, ed. Burton on Burton. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-5122-925-3 Check |isbn= value (help).
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sleepy Hollow (film)
Sleepy Hollow at the Internet Movie Database
Sleepy Hollow at AllRovi
Sleepy Hollow at Rotten Tomatoes
Sleepy Hollow at Metacritic
Sleepy Hollow at Box Office Mojo
Tim Burton interview by Charlie Rose
Stephen Pizzello (December 1999). "Galloping Ghost". American Cinematographer.
Tom Kenny (1999-12-01). "Sound FX for 'Sleepy Hollow': Heads Will Roll, Horses Will Run". Mix.
The sword from “Sleepy Hollow”
[show]
v·
t·
e
Tim Burton
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
Tim Burton by Gage Skidmore.jpg
·
·
·
·
·
·
[show]
v·
t·
e
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
[show]
v·
t·
e
Francis Ford Coppola
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
[show]
v·
t·
e
Works produced by Scott Rudin
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Categories: 1999 films
English-language films
1999 horror films
German films
American films
American horror films
German horror films
American Zoetrope films
Detective films
Films directed by Tim Burton
Films set in New York
Films set in the 1790s
Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award
Ghost films
Paramount Pictures films
Romantic period films
Witchcraft in film
Gothic horror films
Mandalay Pictures films
Works based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Navigation menu
Create account
Log in
Article
Talk
Read
Edit
View history
Search
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
Print/export
Languages
العربية
Azərbaycanca
Български
Català
Česky
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
Hrvatski
Italiano
עברית
Magyar
Монгол
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Simple English
Српски / srpski
Suomi
Svenska
Türkçe
Українська
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 5 November 2013 at 22:04.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment