So, what started as an April fools joke last year may soon become reality! A while back a few people came up with the idea that Tim Burton would be the ideal guy to direct a new Mary Poppins film, and came out with what the specifics of this new feature would be. Unfortunately for us all, it was a hoax. But now new rumours are surfacing saying that Burton very well may be giving it a go! And here are five reasons why this needs to happen.
1: It was always kinda creepy.
Let’s face it. Mary Poppins may have been a great film, but it always had some creepy undertones. The English setting made it dark and grim, with cold buildings, constant cloud and shadows everywhere. The hauntingly soft vocals on every slow song did not help. Hell, there are many remade trailers for Mary Poppins branding it as a horror film, and doing quite a good job of it. You know what else has the same visual structure? Tim Burton films. Sleepy Hollow could have been set down the road from Mary Poppins, as could Sweeney Todd. Burton has this setting down to a fine art and, rather than letting the creepiness sit in the background, he knows how to twist and turn it into a major part of the story.
2: Fantasy crossovers just suit him: just look at Alice In Wonderland.
Tim Burton is not only known for his own films and for Broadway Thriller adaptations. He has also tackled other fantasy and science fiction genres. For example in Alice in Wonderland Tim Burton took Lewis Carroll’s original story and brought the more unnerving features to the front, making the fantastical aspects an integral part of the world. Or look at the Batman films directed by Tim Burton, where the same grungy grimy, fantasy setting has made its way onto the streets of Gotham, to great effect. We would love to see the same thing happen for Mary Poppins, giving us a newly set film following our favourite nanny.
3: His own magical twists.
But, of course, it would not be Tim Burton if he did not give us a few of his own original Burton twists. In Alice in Wonderland, Alice was a fully grown young woman, making the surrealness of Wonderland pop out of the screen. In Sleepy Hollow the original characters surrounding the headless horseman make the world a little too real, keeping the horror alive. Burton just can’t make a film without completely owning it. And although we enjoyed the original Mary Poppins, we can’t wait to see what Burton will make of it once he gets it.
4: Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.
It’s a well known fact that wherever Tim Burton goes, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter follow. Although Burton has begun to add some fresh faces to his main roles, we all know that Depp would make an excellent roof dancing, song singing, pavement painting chimney sweep. And even if Helena Bonham Carter does not take the lead role, we can see her manifesting some place or another for sure. And any Burton film with those two is gold.