The cult director of "Beetlejuice" and "Alice in Wonderland" is the specialist of eccentric characters. With "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," Tim Burton revisits a few of his favorite things.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/J.Maidment
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Peculiar is a word that quickly comes to mind when considering Tim Burton's iconic style, established through his 18 feature films over the last 30 years. Very often, he creates eerie universes featuring outsiders that cannot properly be defined as children nor adults.
For his latest film, he adapted Ransom Rigg's best-selling novel for young adults, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," into a 3D dark fantasy adventure movie. The title of the book sounds like it was created for the US filmmaker.
It tells the story of a boy who is misunderstood by his family and travels back in time to a World War II-era orphanage for eccentric children, hidden in an alternative world on a mysterious island. These children have special abilities. Typical ones include being inhumanly strong or invisible, but others boast even more unusual features, such as having a beehive in the stomach or an extra mouth in the back of the head.
Tim Burton's adaptation stars Asa Butterfield as the main character, the 16-year-old Jacob "Jake" Portman, and Eva Green as Miss Peregrine, the headmistress of the home who shape-shifts into a peregrine falcon. Samuel L. Jackson is the leader of the dangerous "Wights" that Jake will need to confront to protect the peculiar children.
The film premiered in the US on September 25 and will hit theaters worldwide within the following days. The release date in Germany is October 6.
To find out more about Tim Burton's universe, click through the gallery below on the touring exhibition featuring his artwork, "The World of Tim Burton."
Welcome to Tim Burton's macabre world of art
His works are spooky and dreamy, but also funny and childish. Filmmaker Tim Burton created whole new worlds - often with a pencil or paintbrush before moving to film. A touring exhibition shows rare artworks by Burton.
Image: 2015 Tim Burton, All Rights Reserved
Get inside Tim Burton's head
Fans can't get enough of his quirky take on horror. Through rare drawings, paintings and sketches, the touring exhibition "The World of Tim Burton" gives exceptional insights into how filmmaker and artist Tim Burton actually thinks. It is now on show in Shanghai and will move on to Hong Kong in November.
Image: 2015 Tim Burton, All Rights Reserved
Burton borrows from Max Ernst
The exhibition previously stopped in other large cities such as New York, Prague and Tokyo. In Germany, it was only shown in the 44,000-person town of Brühl. It's no coincidence that the tiny Max Brühl Museum stumbled upon Tim Burton. The American artist's work - like "Blue Girl with Wine" from 1997 - bears an uncanny resemblance to that of surrealist Max Ernst, who was born in Brühl in 1891.
Image: 2015 Tim Burton, All Rights Reserved
Alternative realities
For Tim Burton, reality is not singular and variations on the norm are the common thread in the exhibition. Using alienating techniques like masks or coverings, Tim Burton plays with reality - like here in "Green Man" from 1999.
Image: 2015 Tim Burton, All Rights Reserved
Vision of 'the others'
Other worlds have always interested artists and filmmakers. Burton often sketches ideas that later turn up in his films. "Saucer and Aliens" was created from 1972-74 and was reflected on many years later in films like "Mars Attacks!" (1996) and "Planet of the Apes" (2001).
Image: 2015 Tim Burton, All Rights Reserved
Fairytales rewritten
Fairytale figures often find their way into Tim Burton's pictures as well as his films. Sometimes he creates abstract, fairytale-like settings, while at other times he remakes a classic - like "Alice in Wonderland" in 2010. This reindeer from 1994-1999 looks like he could become the main character in a yet unwritten Christmas tale.
Image: 2015 Tim Burton, All Rights Reserved
Dark and childish
Comic often meets horror in Tim Burton's paintings, drawings and films. This drawing from 1997 is typical of Burton's style: The dreamy, black-and-white tones seem to contradict the childish face.
Image: 2015 Tim Burton, All Rights Reserved
The artistic evolution of a work
Drawings become films, sketches turn into screenplays and oil paintings are shaped into scenarios for full-blown blockbusters. Usually the public can only admire Tim Burton's oeuvre in the cinema. Through the exhibition "The World of Tim Burton," which has been touring the world since 2009, fans have also gained access to his art. (Pictured: "The Last of Its Kind" from 1994).
