Paramount reckon it’s because of budget details and plot changes - but here at totalfilm.com, we think Ripley’s Believe It Or Not has been slapped on the backburner because helmer Tim Burton has to work with Johnny Depp at least once a year or he’ll melt.
With a budget somewhere in the region of $150 million, Burton and his lead Jim Carrey are keen to get Ripley’s right and so the intrepid duo are taking it back to the drawing board. They will fiddle with ideas and feed them back to scribers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski.
“We intend to make the movie with Tim and Jim,” Paramount honcho Brad Weston told Variety . “They are meeting later this week to continue working on the script. We wanted to get to the right place creatively and financially.”
It seems as soon as the year-break was finalised, Burton hit speed-dial and Depp had scribbled to star as the lead in Sweeney Todd – a flick based on the Stephen Sondheim musical about a barber who slices up his clients and stuffs them into pies. DreamWorks will be writing the cheques and Weston admits that Paramount were pleased to see the master of bizarre fill his calendar so quickly.
“Through our relationship with DreamWorks, this picture switch was made easy and seamless.”
Ah see, even those Hollywood types can play nice…
Source: ( Variety )
