Johnny Depp is reason enough for many people to look forward to a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  He’s classic as Captain Jack Sparrow and men, women and children will sit through a barely adequate script just to watch Depp become the charismatic pirate.  Now rumor has it there may be two more reasons to anticipate the upcoming Pirates movie.  Jack may have a brother, and Tim Burton may be directing!

Our proven informant (who we’re forced to keep anonymous) wants you to know the following info should be taken with a “grain of salt and a dose of pepper,” things are still in motion, but here goes anyway. Wondering how they’re going to make a whole Pirates movie with just Jack Sparrow? Or who else might return? Read on!

Most excitingly, there are talks of Captain Jack having a brother in the next movie, possibly to be played by Sacha Baron Cohen (perfect!) or Russell Brand (even more perfect!) Of course, that’s probably just fantasy casting, but why would either of those comedians turn the role down? As we’ve mentioned before, the new movie might kick off a trilogy, which would revolve around Captain Jack’s search for the Fountain of Youth.

Geoffrey Rush and director Gore Verbinski are apparently both planning to return, but… and this is a big maybe… Tim Burton might direct instead. Tim Burton! If there is a single director who could make people excited for a fourth Pirates movie, it has to be Burton.

[From CinemaBlend.com]

Russell Brand and Johnny Depp could be magic.  They have a general resemblance, especially with the eye makeup.  They’re both fearless and could certainly dial up the comedy playing off each other.  My personal preference would definitely be Brand over Sacha Baron Cohen.  It goes without saying that Geoffrey Rush is essential to any sequel, but it might be time for Verbinski to consider other projects and let new blood take over the Pirates franchise.  I think most people agree that the movies’ magnetic charm has weakened as the series has progressed.

Depp and Burton have proven time and time again how well they work together.  Tim Burton is a prolific hit movie maker and has capably handled everything from stop-motion animation to musicals.  He brings a depth of color and scenery to his movies that would serve him well in a Pirates movie, too.  If anyone could make a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie truely interesting again, beyond Depp and Rush, it’s Burton.

Header photo is of Burton and Depp at the Sweeney Todd premiere in Paris on 1/16/08. Credit: Solarpix / PR Photos. Photos below are of Burton on 1/23/08 speaking to fans in Rome Credit: Insidefoto / PR Photos

The cast for the next Tim Burton movie, a 3-D live-action/CGI animated version of Alice In Wonderland, was announced today and in keeping with the perfect movie partnership they discovered 18 years ago, Johnny Depp will be playing the Mad Hatter. 

If any story for a movie is appropriate to be filmed in 3-D, it would be Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.  The live-action/CGI is the method used in the recent Angelina Jolie movie Beowulf and it’s a good combination of animation and live acting for the fantasy and allegory of the classic “children’s” book.  Disney is still the distributor, but you can bet with Burton at the helm, it won’t be your mother’s Alice!

Depp and Burton have been one of the best pairings in popular cinema since they teamed up for Edward Scissorhands in 1990.  Ed Wood, in ‘94, was the beginning of crazy, Depp brilliance, it just wasn’t quite appreciated yet and flopped at the box office.  Burton’s darkness and Depp’s quirky intesity played perfectly together in Sleepy Hollow, breathing new life and interest into a much played story.  And while Depp’s Willie Wonka was a little creepy, Burton’s dark but colorful rendering of his Chocolate Factory was captivating.  Sweeney Todd was just genius, from both of them.  Even Corpse Bride was intriguing and fun to look at, whether you’re into animated films or not.

It pretty much went without saying when Burton signed on for this project that Depp would take the Mad Hatter role, but now it’s official.  Also official is Mia Wasikowska, a Heath Ledger memorial scholarship recipient for up and coming Australian actors, as Alice, and Matt Lucas, of Little Britain and Little Britain USA, doing double as Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Alice in Wonderland is currently in pre-production and is scheduled for release in March 2010.

Information from IMDB and Reuters

Photo credit: Fame Pictures and Lenny’s Alice in Wonderland Site

Life is good for Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton. In the last few days they’ve each been nominated for a Golden Globe, and then had a baby girl.

The infant, born in London late Saturday, joins big brother Billy, who is 4.

“They are absolutely delighted they have a daughter,” the actress’s rep, Karon Maskill, tells People. “It’s a lovely Christmas present for the family.”

People

Since Helena and Tim live in two houses, joined by a corridor, I’m hoping that at least one of them sneaks into the house that is baby-free and avoids the sleepless nights.

The baby’s name has yet to be announced, but unfortunately their previous child is called Billy, so not a good track record of odd celebrity names. Given that she was pregnant during the filming of Sweeney Todd, causing her breasts to fluctuate in size and ruin the film’s continuity, I’m guessing they’ll give the girl a name related to the film. Sweeney Todd Burton-Bonham-Carter?

The couple also received news of the Golden Globe nominations while at the hospital, where Helena joked that Tim wanted to paint her globular belly gold in celebration. Since we are talking about Tim Burton here, I’m a little surprised he didn’t.

Tim Burton was nominated for his directing and Helena Bonham Carter got a nod for acting, as did Johnny Depp. The film was nominated for best muscial or comedy.

Congratulations to the happy couple. Hopefully the baby isn’t scared by the Burton family decorations of slime balls and dead babies. Doesn’t it seem to be in particularly poor taste to decorate your tree with dead babies when your girlfriend is pregnant? Maybe that’s what they were going for.

I think most of us go through a phase where we like to consider ourselves unusual, odd, or subversive. Generally this occurs during the teenage years, but it can last a little longer… or in some cases never go away. For this reason alone, Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter seem to be the perfect pair. There are a bunch of other quirky reasons, but most of them fall under the heading of “Personality quirks of people who never grew out of THAT phase.” Case in point: Bonham Carter says Burton decorates his Christmas tree with dead babies and slime balls. I assume Tim Burton and Marilyn Manson have the same interior designer.

The household of Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter is outfitted for Christmas – just not in the traditional manner. “He decorates it with dead babies and slime balls and things,” Carter, 41, tells Playboy magazine in its January issue, about trimming the tree with boyfriend (of six years) Burton, 49. “It looks lovely and glittery from afar, and then as you get closer, you realize it’s rather gory.”

Lest anyone get the wrong idea, Carter, who stars with Johnny Depp in Burton’s new movie musical Sweeney Todd, says, “We’re not that dark. What I love about Tim is that he retains a certain innocence and a childlike quality.

[From People]

Talk about looking at it through the eyes of love. It is sweet that Helena sees Burton’s eccentricities as adorable. And they’re certainly one of those couples that match and make a lot of sense together. Though lately the two have also looked perpetually terrified together. But at least it seems to be a shared emotion. The couple lives together, but not really together. They have separate houses that are attached. I have to say, once having lived with a boyfriend for two and a half years, I really can’t argue with that logic, in terms of maintaining long-term sanity. I joke, but hey, whatever works for you. They certainly seem happy together. Burton and Bonham Carter are expecting their second child in late December. Helena noted that they’re both unconventional parents. Shocking.

He sort of forgot to grow up. I think I’ve definitely forgotten to grow up, which is great.” Carter, who in 2003 gave birth to the couple’s son Billy Ray… adds with a laugh, “At some point, [Billy] will probably want parents. He’ll have to look elsewhere.”

[From People]

Well as long as you don’t drive with the baby in your lap or use the soft spot on their head as an ashtray (I stole that from a “Family Guy” parody of Britney Spears… but I’m pretty sure she has done that), I guess you’re a pretty good parent by celebrity standards. They’ll probably be fun and weird parents, and hopefully will figure out how to be not-so-fun regular parents when need be. Or they can just play with slime balls.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter are shown at the Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix premiere on 7/3/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

There’s been a lot of press in the last year or so talking about various celebrities and their struggles to get pregnant. I know that it’s an incredibly common problem, and several of the commentors on here have talked about their struggles with fertility. It’s good to know there’s support in numbers, and that celebrities aren’t immune to the struggles of everyday people. Helena Bonham Carter and her husband Tim Burton struggled with infertility after having their first child, four-year-old Billy Ray. Yeah the name surprised me a little too. Bonham Carter, 41, assumed that she wasn’t ovulating, so she began a course of treatment with Clomid, which is designed to stimulate egg production. It turns out she was still ovulating, and had a bad reaction to the Clomid, which is apparently not that uncommon.

“‘It stressed me out beyond belief. Hormonally, I was all over the shop and I got really low emotionally. Lots of people don’t have that reaction, but on the internet I found a Clomid Club, with people who react to the stuff discussing it online,’ she said. After going to a North London acupuncturist who supplied a variety of teas to ‘build my strength up,’ Bonham Carter, also tried Tui Na (literally ‘push and grasp’), an acupuncture-related Chinese massage for patients who prefer to avoid needles.

“But with her biological clock ticking loudly in her ear, she realized Oriental medicine wasn’t the solution she’d hoped for – and the next viable option was In vitro fertilization. ‘We might have gone for a round of IVF,’ Bonham Carter said. ‘There was an argument for just having one child, because we thought if that’s the way it’s meant to be, so be it.’ But the pregnancy came naturally, under the intense pressure of making a movie musical.

“While being directed by Burton alongside Johnny Depp in the title role of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd, Bonham Carter discovered she was pregnant . ‘I was working so hard at the time,’ she recalled. ‘The first three months being pregnant while filming, I felt totally spaced out. You do need to multi-task with acting. You’ve got to remember your marks, your lines, singing, everything, and actually – you have no brain! Suddenly your own brain is growing another person’s brain, so yours goes defunct,’ said Bonham Carter who is due in December. ‘It wasn’t ideal, but then I was so happy to be pregnant.’”

[From People]

Helena Bonham Carter is super lucky to have gotten pregnant naturally. Though I don’t know a ton about fertility issues, I can’t help but wonder if it was just a lucky fluke, or if the Clomid and alternative therapies might have worked in conjunction and helped her out. I can’t imagine how stressful and exhausting it would be to film a movie while pregnant… though one would hope that if your husband is the director, he’d cut you some extra slack. And massage your feet from his director’s chair.

Bonham Carter also has been craving Marmite during the last few months of her pregnancy. I was pretty sure that was some kind of animal, probably related to sloths or lemurs, but it turns out it’s a “British and New Zealand spread made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing. The British version is sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, powerful taste. This distinctive taste is reflected in the British company’s marketing slogan: ‘Love it or hate it.’” Thanks, Wikipedia. I’m glad to know Helena Bonham Carter isn’t eating sloths. Although that could be a kind of alternative therapy too. Probably for insomnia though.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s Helena and Tim at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition on June 6th. Header image at the “Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix” London Premiere on July 3rd. Images thanks to PR Photos.

The trailer for the upcoming Tim Burton film, iSweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, is out. It looks like Depp predictably shines as a serial killer bent on revenge. He’s so skilled at playing offbeat unlikely heroes. Burton seems to provide rich visuals and the type of haunting, dark atmosphere that he’s know for.

Possible Spoiler Alert:
Here’s the plot synopsis:

Plot Summary: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton join forces again in a big-screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning musical thriller “Sweeney Todd.” Depp stars in the title role as a man unjustly sent to prison who vows revenge, not only for that cruel punishment, but for the devastating consequences of what happened to his wife and daughter. When he returns to reopen his barber shop, Sweeney Todd becomes the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who “shaved the heads of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard from again.” Joining Depp is Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney’s amorous accomplice, who creates diabolical meat pies. The cast also includes Alan Rickman, who portrays the evil Judge Turpin, who sends Sweeney to prison and Timothy Spall as the Judge’s wicked associate Beadle Bamford and Sacha Baron Cohen is a rival barber, the flamboyant Signor Adolfo Pirelli.

[From Shock Till You Drop via Fark]

And here are some stills from the film and the movie poster, courtesy of Allmoviephoto. Sweeney Todd is out in theaters on December 21, 2007 and like everything Depp touches it’s sure to be a hit.