If you've watched more than a handful of Tim Burton’s films, chances are you've noticed a pattern. Not so much the use of gothic imagery or the fact that he more often that not lets his films be scored by Danny Elfman.
What I'm talking about is his pattern of having a protagonist (or at least a major character) who is a dark person (often with a dark exterior yet a sensitive core), wronged or misunderstood by society who in the either gains society’s respect or dies.
Just to name a few: In his take on Batman, it was... well Batman. In Batman Returns he does it again, though this time with the villain the penguin. In Edward Scissorhands it is again the titular character. In Sweeney Todd I don't even think I have to explain the example, and the argument can be made that the same thing happens in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Though we can discuss whether the actual protagonist is Willy Wonka or Charlie Bucket.
It remains to be seen whether he will use some incarnation of this motif again in this years "Alice in Wonderland", though it is worth noting that the promotional material seems to favour Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter (which should really be no surprise) and Depp played three of the above characters.
So you can imagine that I was not surprised when rumour had it that Tim Burton has his eye on another film in the Disney back catalogue, "Sleeping Beauty", and that he will allegedly use this pattern again. In essence he will tell the story from the point of view of the villain Maleficent (pictured below), the fairy wronged by not being invited to the christening of princess Aurora.
Though to be fair, this particular idea has been used before by someone other than Burton, albeit in the context of a different story. The novel and musical "Wicked" tells the story of "The Wizard of Oz" as seen by it's villain, the Wicked Witch of the West.
If this turns out to be true I am actually quite excited about the project. There is a story here that will be just up Burton's alley. And Maleficent is, in my opinion, actually one the more interesting villains in the Disney back catalogue, though I imagine that Burton will try to differentiate his take from the iconic character of the original film. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he looks back to the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale and digs some inspiration up from there.
Source: Ain't It Cool News.
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