Tim Burton Biography: His Up and Down Moments and His Shelved Major Projects

Even the best filmmakers have their share of so-so projects and box office flops. Others even have some really awful movies and compromised and shelved projects, at least once in their lives. Yet, such films don't really overpower what their great works can ever do. For their classic works, these masterpieces are better remembered in film history. In the case of Tim Burton, he indeed has his own share of missteps...

Tim Burton Filmography:

Tim Burton Filmography: His Early Works as a Filmmaker (1971 to 1990)

Tim Burton Filmography: His Films from 1992 to 2000

Tim Burton Filmography: His Films from 2001 to 2010

Up and Down Moments

Burton's sequel to his Warner Bros. franchise of Batman was an artistic triumph, but suffered a backlash from conservative fans and parents who felt it was too dark and twisted. Yet, there were those who still saw the blossoming of a young director with the said film entitled Batman Returns. This led to Joel Schumacher taking over the Batman franchise. Burton served had a producer credit on the third film entitled Batman Forever.

During the height of his fame as the Batman franchise helmer, he was unable to work full time on his personal project The Nightmare Before Christmas. He was able to manage producing his pet project by collaborating with director Henry Selick. With one of his dream films realized, this 1993 stop-motion animation film became another huge hit for Burton, then more than a decade after, he releases his first stop-motion animation feature entitled Corpse Bride.

Burton released Ed Wood in 1994, an affectionate tribute to the so-called "Worst Filmmaker of All Time" It didn't go well with the box office, yet he received the best reviews in his filmmaking career and he also received two Oscars for it. This was followed by an indirect homage to Wood's films with Mars Attacks!. It received bad reviews and was also a disappointment at the box office, but it gained cult status over the years.

After Mars Attacks!, he went in hiatus in motion picture production for about three years. After which, he directed his first real horror film entitled Sleepy Hollow in 1999.

After a long gestation period, his next project was the reworking of the classic sci-fi filmPlanet of the Apes released in 2001. Although visually stunning and featured many strong performances, this rushed production considerably resulted to a visually stunning but still disappointing movie to many people who have high expectations with Burton's works.

Another of the few missteps in Burton's career was his lackluster TV series Family Dog, a 1993 cartoon project co-produced by Steven Spielberg.

Shelved Major Projects for Burton

Burton was set to direct Believe It or Not, a Robert Ripley biopic to be played by Jim Carrey.

Burton also spent more than a year working on a Superman film in between filming Mars Attacks! and Sleepy Hollow. The Man of Steel role was supposed to be given to Nicolas Cage. Warner Bros. pulled the plug on the project due to his creative issues about the script and the spiraling budget for the production.

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