Tim Burton to Direct ‘Big Eyes’ with Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz
Tim Burton has lined up his next project, and it's 'Big Eyes,' the long-in-development biography of Margaret and Walter Keane, who painted those big eyed pictures of children. And for his leads he's got Amy Adams and recent Oscar winner Christoph Waltz.
The film was written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who also penned Burton's 'Ed Wood' and were going to be the directors at one point when the project had Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Reynolds attached. Perhaps they needed bigger names to move the project forward.
As Deadline notes, the story is of Walter (to be played by Christoph Waltz) and Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), and it was Walter who grew famous for those distinctive drawings. But it was Margaret who actually painted them, which turned their relationship sour and eventually led to a court case where Margaret had to prove she was the painter.
At this point in Tim Burton's career, he's been so hit and miss lately (with more misses than hits), he's no guarantee that it's going to be a good or great picture, but at this point 'Big Eyes' sounds better than Burton making another film with Johnny Depp. And after 'Dark Shadows' it looks like Burton is going back to basics with a good story and script. He's got a great cast, so here's hoping. This seems like an Oscar picture, so we'd expect it sometime in 2014's fall season.