Steven Spielberg almost directed one of Tim Burton’s most successful films

Both Steven Spielberg AND Tim Burton they have directed some great films over the years, although their styles and stories are very different. But it turns out that a film in Burton’s repertoire attracted Spielberg, and he was the first to star in it.

An adaptation of By Daniel Wallace 1998 book Big Fish: a novel of mythical proportionsbecame Tim Burton’s hit film of 2003, Big fisha visually stunning story about a man reflecting on his father’s life as it comes to an end. It’s a stunning spectacle, which is the kind of film each of these directors is known for, so it makes sense that it would have had an impact on each of them.

According to the biographical book Burton on Burton (via /Film), Big fish screenwriter John August he spent about a year piecing together various versions of the script from Spielberg, who became attached to direct the film in 2000 after reading August’s initial draft.

“However, Spielberg was never entirely satisfied with the script and what he originally planned to accomplish Big fish like its sequel Minority reporthe ultimately abandoned the project.

August then proceeded to assemble his “Best Of” draft, which included some elements from previous iterations while eliminating others.

This also led to the abandonment of most of the additions to the script made at Spielberg’s request, although some of them still made it into the final film (most notably, a scene in which eerie trees in a dark forest come to life and attack McGregor as the young Edward Bloom – even if he seems very Burtonian).

Spielberg wanted it too Jack Nicholson to play the old Edward, although the role ultimately fell through Albert Finney. But when Burton replaced Spielberg as director, he similarly turned to his old friend, Nicholson, for the role before choosing Finney, having previously collaborated with Nicholson on Batman AND Mars attacks!

Burton had even toyed with the idea of ​​digitally altering Nicholson so he could also play Edward when he was younger. “It was a fun discussion but it went nowhere,” Burton said Burton on Burton. Nice call, it would have been weird and we would have missed it Ewan McGregor’s Absolutely delightful and beautiful performance.

Just as Spielberg moved away from his father at a relatively young age, Burton moved into his own apartment when he was only 15 and remained away from his parents until the deaths of his father and mother in October 2000 and March 2002, respectively.

“I don’t know if there’s a real reason why I didn’t get along with my parents,” Burton confessed in Burton on Burton. “It had more to do with the fact that when I lived there [with them]I felt old for my age.” He added that he “didn’t get along” with his mother and his father was “very distant, and [he and my mother] they had whatever their problems were, and I was always distant.”

It’s no wonder, then, that Burton found himself drawn Big fishwhich he formally committed to directing just a month after his mother’s death.

While Will has a mostly solid relationship with his mother Sandra (played by Jessica Lange in the present of the film and Alison Lohmann being a younger woman), she also tolerates and embraces Edward’s stories for reasons that Will struggles to understand.

Meanwhile, Edward’s job meant that he, like Burton’s father, was absent for extended periods of time while Will grew up, which added to his mystique when Will was an impressionable boy but only added to the sense that Will didn’t really know his dad as an adult.

As Burton noted Burton on Burtondirection Big fish allowed him to go on a journey very similar to the one Will takes in the film when, while Will and his wife Joséphine (Marion Cotillard) are spending time with Edward and Sandra, after Edward is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he sets out to discover the truth behind his father’s tales (which are shown in flashbacks, although in the way Edward told the tales his experiences, fantastical elements and all).

“I’ve done therapy but I’ve never talked about my parents. But reading this script I thought, ‘That’s exactly it, it gives an image of the incommunicable,'” Burton explained.

The result was one of Burton’s most personal films, and as far as Spielberg was concerned, he went off and directed his own exceptional film about a person who grows up and comes to see their parents as real, imperfect human beings with Catch me if you can.

via: /Film