(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Tim Burton blew millions on new film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - training squirrels to crack nuts.

The Batman director was determined to recreate the "nut room" scene in Roald Dahl's novel for his movie starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

He spent six months teaching the 200 rodents to crack hazelnuts, sort them and load them on a conveyor belt.

He then spent ANOTHER ten weeks filming the scene at London's Pinewood Studios.

Burton, 46, said: "We used actual rodents. From birth, we sent them to training school for six months."

Comments

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

That's the Sun, man.

*reposts what you said about the whipping therapy article*

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Last I checked, the Sun was sensationalist and trashy, but still required that the news be basically true. It's like the Daily Mirror or the Washington Times.

Also:
http://www.dehavilland.co.uk/webhost.asp?wci=default&wcp=EntertainmentStoryPage&ItemID=8209104&ServiceID=8&filterid=345221&searchid=234672&category=1
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/burton%20trains%20up%20squirrels%20for%20wonka%20film
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=iol1112780019332N320
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1345899.html
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=%22tim+burton%22+nuts+rodents&btnG=Search+News

Unlike Pravda, which is more like the Weekly World News or the Star.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

Apart from the bits where it's more like the National Enquirer, of course. Sure, what they report is that "someone claims that", which is of course basically true, but still...

[torrain.livejournal.com]

The Ananova and DeHavilland links both quote Burton as saying that they used squirrels, and sent them to training school for six months. While the millions of pounds figure is coming from somewhere else, and I could maybe see the six months as being facetious (how long does it take to train a squirrel, anyway?), I'd expect it to be expensive and time-consuming.

(Please god, let the movie be good.)

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

*blink*

Ok, Burton's crazy and meglomaniacal. But I don't think he's that loony...

[torrain.livejournal.com]

It's not lunacy, it's devotion.

That said, I'd gotten the impression that Ananova is usually pretty reliable...