He grew up on Evergreen Street in Burbank and discovered a playground for his imagination at the nearby Evergreen Cemetery, where he could take refuge from the world in the somber, spooky silences.
Now Tim Burton is one of Hollywood’s most inventive creative forces, a director whose dark, distinctive visual approach and persistent sense of fun have animated movies as diverse as “Beetlejuice,” the first two “Batman” films, “Edward Scissorhands” and “Ed Wood.”
In his new movie–“Mars Attacks!”–Burton, now 38, indulges his childhood passion for B-grade space-invader movies with a goofy, extravagantly realized send-up of the genre.
Financed by Warner Bros. for a whopping $80 million, “Mars Attacks!” which opened Friday, features cheese-brained little green men with ray guns who land on earth and blow away every well-meaning Earthling who attempts to extend a welcome, vaporizing Las Vegas to boot. Jack Nicholson plays the president and Glenn Close the first lady, and everyone from Pierce Brosnan and Martin Short to cultural icons Tom Jones, Jim Brown, Pam Grier and yodeling country crooner Slim Whitman gets into the act.
The tone and style of the movie, Burton says, were inspired by a 1962 series of Topps trading cards called “Mars Attacks!” that were brought to his attention by screenwriter Jonathan Gems.
The cards were obviously a perfect fit for the director. As he speaks, it’s evident that Burton is someone who lives and breathes the popular culture of his generation.
Q: How did you get the idea for the burning cows that run down the road at the beginning of the movie and tip everyone off that something strange is happening?
A: It came right from the trading cards. They were like little paintings, and they had a certain quality to them that I really got into. I picked out some of my favorites and worked them into the movie. That one was called “Burning Cattle.” Another one was “Washington in Flames.”
Q: What does blowing up Las Vegas mean to you?
A: About as much as it does to the people who are actually blowing it up, even as we speak. The Sands was blown up just last week and, to me, it’s a tragedy, because there’s so little of history in the West as it is, and those old Las Vegas buildings are beautiful–their architecture. In my mind, the Martians would have no regard for what we, as humans, also show very little regard for.
Q: I take it you like Las Vegas?
A: I’ve loved going there ever since I was a little kid. There’s no place like it for people-watching. I guess it’s a symbol of instant gratification in a lot of ways. It’s kind of tacky and retro, and yet at the same time it seems like the most modern American city. It just intrigues me. You think of all the weird stuff–how it got started, and the way it’s near nuclear test sites, and there are a lot of alien sightings around there. Whenever I drive in there, I’m always amazed. I think, “Why is this here?” You can see it from a distance, set apart in the middle of this stark landscape. It’s like “Logan’s Run.” I imagine someday there’ll be a dome over it. There’s a dome over part of it already.
Q: I heard that you initially had trouble getting people to be in the movie, and then after Jack Nicholson (whom Burton worked with in “Batman”) signed on, it got a lot easier.
A: I was really lucky to get a bunch of people who wouldn’t ordinarily be in a movie like this. That became part of the energy of it. You watch it and you think, “Why would they bring themselves to be in this movie?” Well, I think it’s because they usually have to do other kinds of things. Part of the fun, if I was ever an actor, would be playacting, making stuff up out of nothing. I have a strong resistance to categorization in anything, so I was grateful. It was very surreal to see them all on the set.
Q: Tom Jones said in an interview that he was performing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and you just came backstage and asked him to be in the movie.
A: Yeah, I’ve always been a fan of his. Growing up in Burbank, it seemed like nobody in the neighborhood listened to music, but they listened to Tom Jones. I thought that was a compliment
to him. He had a power with these people. I’d see him on TV, people throwing underwear at him, and I’d say, “Wow, he’s powerful.” His voice is so great, and he makes you feel good. He’s like this action-adventure hero to me. You feel as though he’d deal with any situation with the same kind of strength, whether it was a concert or a Martian invasion. He’d just get in there and go for it.
Q: Do you think your fondness for space-invasion movies comes from growing up in the Cold War era?
A: We had those “duck and cover” exercises in school and watched those little preparation films like “Red Asphalt” or something. Growing up, it seems like I watched hundreds of science-fiction movies on TV, but I can’t remember what any of them are about. They’re like some sort of collective primal imagery, a modern fairy tale. There’s been more than one movie with big-brained little green men.
Q: Your Martians always do the opposite of what the experts predict. Why is that?
A: It’s the concept that there are some things that can’t be figured out that easily. The Cold War enemy is kind of gone, but what’s replaced that is people trying to categorize and reduce everything. There are so many experts now when there’s a trial or a war. It’s like a movement to try to put everything into a box. People talk about how dark the movies are that I make, and then I’ll turn on the news and see a war going on, and it’s presented with a theme song and a title graphic–like it’s a story. To me, that’s really, really weird. It seems to me there’s a gap between what some people think is weird and what others do. In my movies, I try to say, in some kind of under-the-surface way, that things aren’t always what they seem.
Q: Have you seen the movie “Independence Day”?
A: Not yet. When I’m making something, I usually don’t go out and see other movies, because you don’t want to be influenced one way or another. People have said there are similarities, so I don’t want there to be any more connective tissue than that. But when I get done with all this, I’ll be interested to see it, and I’m sure I’ll probably like it.
Q: Now that you’ve blown up Las Vegas, have you thought about making a movie where you blow up Disney World?
A: If they’d let me, it would be great. But there’s no way they’d ever go for it.
