Aintitcool.com was fed a scoop last week that Tim Burton might be returning to stop motion feature animation for the third time (although technically second time as director, since Henry Selick directed Nightmare Before Christmas). This was apparently heavily hinted at during a Q&A session that Disney Pictures' Chairman Dick Cook participated in at North Carolina School of Arts. When asked about the future of animation for the studio, Cook said that "the creative mastermind behind the majority of stop-motion pictures in the last decade" was working on something for the studio.
That would immediately seem to be Nick Park, since he's made both Chicken Run and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit this decade. But apparently a follow up suggestion by the moderator that this might be Burton was not denied. Then this morning Aintitcool received another email saying that the project Burton is planning is a full-length remake of his short film Frankenweenie. If you're a Tim Burton fan, we will pause while you fall off your chair, because that's hugely exciting.
For those of you not familiar with the film, which is available on the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD, Frankenweenie is a loose-retelling of the Frankenstein story, in which young Victor's dog, Weenie, is run over but resurrected by his master, complete with neck bolts. The Frankendog then becomes a neighbourhood terror, but Victor tries to convince them all that he's still just his loveable pet.
The interesting thing here is that the original short was live-action (it starred Shelley Duvall, Daniel Stern and a young Sofia Coppola) and was only 29 minutes long. So, remaking this would involve some major re-jigging. But, if this is true – and it's still very much unconfirmed rumour at this time – then how awesome is that?