(Virgin Books, 2002, ISBN 0753506823, 304 pages, co-authored with Jim Smith)

“A highly useful guide… They read the films with a restrained intelligence that occasionally lights up with comedy.” (The Guardian)

“The ultimate word on the weird and wonderful world of Burton” (Film Review)

“As unconventional as Burton himself… impeccable” (Hotdog)

“Is it any good? Hell yes… an incredibly well researched casebook that covers a monstrous scope of information.” (Ain’t it Cool News)

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Part of the acclaimed Virgin Film series, this critical guide to the work of director Tim Burton covers all aspects of his movies from the earliest student shorts up to Planet of the Apes. Includes all-new interviews, a foreword by Oscar-winning acting legend Martin Landau, and the first and only plot synopsis of Burton’s lost alien invasion surfer flick Luau.

(Text copyright Jim Smith, J Clive Matthews & Virgin Books Ltd. – not to be reproduced in any form without premission)

The Grey Havens: Conclusion

There are some fans of The Lord of the Rings who routinely claim, when the numerous adaptations of Tolkien’s magnum opus deviate from the course of his original narrative, that he would have been “horrified” by what was being done to his story. To hold this view is to misunderstand his attachment to the antics of Frodo and his fellows. Asked about the reaction of his ardent fans from the United States to his books in the late 1960s, Tolkien stated that he was nowhere near as attached to his work as some of his readers appeared to be: ‘Many young Americans are involved in the stories in a way that I am not.’

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Extract from the Chapter on Ed Wood (1994)

Source Material: This is a biopic, so obviously the life and works of Edward D. Wood Jr. are the source. Burton had long been acquainted with the filmmaker’s much maligned oeuvre, ‘I was about ten years old when I first saw Plan 9 From Outer Space on television; some of the action takes place at the airport and the cemetery in Burbank, right near where I lived then.’ He has even risen to Wood’s defence when it has been suggested that his movies are ‘so bad that they’re good’ or that the writer/director/star of Glen or Glenda deserves his often used epitaph of ‘The worst director of all time’; ‘The film didn’t strike me as bad…it had great presence…personality. It wasn’t until much later that I saw [Wood’s other movies] and although those films don’t have similar settings you can see the in them the marks of a very personal universe.’ Continue Reading