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Corpse Bride marks TIM BURTON’s (Director/Producer) second film released in 2005. Most recently, Burton directed the fantasy adventure Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore. Based on the beloved Roald Dahl classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opened to impressive critical and box office success and continues to entertain audiences everywhere.

Burton’s previous film was Big Fish, a heartwarming tale of a fabled relationship between a father and his son. The film was hailed as Burton’s most personal and emotional to date, earning respectable reviews and box office. Big Fish starred Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange and Billy Crudup.

Prior to Big Fish, Burton directed Planet of the Apes, a project that brought him together with producer Richard D. Zanuck, the former 20th Century Fox studio head who had greenlit the original film in l968. Burton’s Planet of the Apes starred Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan and Kris Kristofferson and was a summer 2001 box office hit.

All of Burton’s films are well known for the highly imaginative and detailed world he creates to surround and inform the story. They include Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks! and Sleepy Hollow.

Burton began drawing at an early age, attended Cal Arts Institute on a Disney fellowship and, soon after, joined the studio as an animator. He made his directing debut with the animated short Vincent, narrated by Vincent Price. The film was a critical success and an award-winner on the festival circuit. Burton’s next in-house project was a live-action short film called Frankenweenie, an inventive and youthful twist on the Frankenstein legend.

In 1985, Burton’s first feature film, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, was a box-office hit and the director was praised for his original vision. Beetlejuice (l988), a supernatural comedy starring Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin and Winona Ryder, was another critical and financial success.

In 1989, Burton directed the blockbuster Batman starring Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger. Following the triumph of Batman, the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) awarded Burton the Director of the Year Award. The film also won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

Edward Scissorhands, starring Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder and Diane Wiest, was one of the big hits of the 1990 Christmas season and acclaimed for its original vision and poignant fairy tale sensibility. In 1992, Burton once again explored the dark underworld of Gotham City in Batman Returns, the highest grossing film of that year, which featured Michelle Pfeiffer as the formidable Catwoman and Danny DeVito as the Penguin.

In 1994, Burton produced and directed Ed Wood starring Johnny Depp in the title role. The film garnered Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi) and Best Special Effects Makeup.

Burton conceived and produced the stop-motion animation adventure Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, an original holiday tale that has become a seasonal perennial. He also produced 1993’s Cabin Boy and 1995’s summer blockbuster Batman Forever, as well as the 1996 release of James and the Giant Peach, based on Roald Dahl’s children’s novel.

Burton produced and directed Mars Attacks!, a sci-fi comedy based on the original Topps trading card series, starring an elite array of 20 leading players including Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Danny DeVito and Annette Bening.

In 1999 Burton directed Sleepy Hollow, which was inspired by Washington Irving’s classic story and starred Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson and Michael Gambon. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Costume Design and Best Cinematography and won the Oscar for Best Art Direction. Honors from BAFTA included Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.

Burton authored and illustrated a children’s book for The Nightmare Before Christmas, released in conjunction with the film. His next book of drawings and rhyming verse, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories, was praised by the New York Times for “conveying the pain of an adolescent outsider.”

ALLISON ABBATE (Producer) is a native of New York, but relocated to Hollywood in 1989 to begin working at Disney. She served in various capacities on several animated feature film releases including The Rescuers Down Under, the Oscar-winning The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. She then worked as artistic coordinator on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, the first feature-length stop-motion film.

She went on to work in Paris for the Disney Company, setting up a satellite animation studio that completed the Academy Award-nominated Mickey Mouse short Runaway Brain, on which she also served as associate producer.

Abbate joined Warner Bros. Pictures in 1996, where she co-produced the international hit feature Space Jam; the film combined classic animated Warner Bros. Pictures characters with live action sequences starring a cast headlined by Michael Jordan.

She then went on to produce the internationally acclaimed Iron Giant, the feature film adaptation of British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes’ 1968 children’s book The Iron Man, for which she received a BAFTA award in 1999.

She followed up her success on Iron Giant producing Looney Tunes Back in Action, another family comedy which teamed Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck with Brendan Fraser and Steve Martin.

In spring 2004 Abbate was invited to re-locate to London to produce Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride.

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride marks JOHN AUGUST’s (Screenplay) third collaboration with director Tim Burton. August first collaborated with Burton on Big Fish, for which he was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay by BAFTA and the Broadcast Film Critics Association for his adaptation of Daniel Wallace’s novel Big Fish, A Story of Mythic Proportions. More recently, August wrote the screenplay for Burton’s hugely successful film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, adapted from the beloved Roald Dahl classic.

August wrote and co-produced Go, which debuted at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Since then, his writing credits have included Charlie’s Angels, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and Titan A.E.

Upcoming projects for August include a big-screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan. He is also executive-producing Prince of Persia, an adaptation of the best-selling videogame for Disney.

Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, August earned a degree in journalism from Drake University in Iowa and an MFA in film from the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC. He frequently serves as a creative advisor for the Sundance Screenwriting Institute, and runs a website devoted to answering beginning screenwriters’ questions at johnaugust.com.

Corpse Bride marks CAROLINE THOMPSON’s (Screenplay) third collaboration with Tim Burton. Previously, Thompson wrote The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands.

Thompson’s other credits include Black Beauty, The Secret Garden, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, The Addams Family, Buddy and Snow White: The Fairest of Them All.

PAMELA PETTLER (Screenplay) is a feature writer known for her ability to combine great story telling skills with a style that is uniquely quirky, dark and smart. Originally from Berkeley, California, Pettler has worked with Tim Burton on a number of projects, including the upcoming Burton-produced animated film 9, described as a “post-apocalyptic fantasy.” She also co-wrote Monster House, executive produced by Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg and Jason Clark, a thrill-ride tale about three kids who battle a mysterious home. The film, which features performance capture animation, is directed by Gil Kenan and will be released in July 2006. Pettler is also currently writing a new version of the classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Pettler began her career working with Steve Martin, and after that collaborated with a variety of equally imaginative, boundary-pushing talents, in both features and television, including Glen and Les Charles, the Jim Henson Company and Amy Heckerling. She and Heckerling ran the television show Clueless. Pettler also wrote a television project with Richard Curtis in London.

Pettler wrote for Disney Animation for several years on a number of different projects, including a sequel to The Aristocats and a prequel to The Little Mermaid.

She has also written two humor books, The Joy Of Stress (William Morrow) and The No-Sex Handbook (with Amy Heckerling, for Warner Books).

In every medium, Pettler likes to think “outside the frame,” pushing the envelope of creativity both visually and through storytelling.

JEFFREY AUERBACH’s (Executive Producer) prior film credits include Judgment in Berlin, on which he was an executive producer, and Da, on which he was an associate executive producer.

His television credits as executive producer include A Chance of Snow, Marilyn & Bobby, Mortal Sins, Julie and Nightbreaker. Auerbach was also a director and writer on No Means No, as well as a director on the popular series 21 Jump Street.

JOE RANFT (Executive Producer) lent his numerous talents to the world of feature film animation for almost two decades. Ranft was Pixar Animation Studios’ head of story and a founding member of the animation company’s creative team. Prior to his tenure at Pixar, he was a leading member of the story department at Walt Disney Feature Animation.

As an actor, Ranft provided his voice skills to the films The Incredibles, Extreme Skate Adventure, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., Monkeybone, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life and The Brave Little Toaster.

As a writer, Ranft’s story credits included Fantasia/2000; A Bug’s Life; Toy Story, for which he earned an Oscar nomination; The Lion King; Beauty and the Beast; The Rescuers Down Under; Oliver & Company and The Brave Little Toaster.

Ranft also garnered an additional story material credit on Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story 2, and he served as storyboard supervisor on Burton’s James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Additionally, he worked as a character designer: other characters on The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue and is credited as a creator of additional original characters on The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars.

Ranft passed away August 16, 2005.

PETE KOZACHIK’s (Director of Photography) professional cinematography and visual effects work extends back to the mid-1970s, including 37 feature films and several hundred commercials. Before moving to LA in 1979, he directed local area TV news and variety shows, shot and edited documentaries for a PBS affiliate, and produced and directed several dozen animated commercials, plus two low budget animated films.

His early character animation includes the Pillsbury Doughboy, Little Softy bathroom tissue, and Mrs. Butterworth. Kozachik introduced computer controlled camera moves to this form in the early 1980s at Cascade / Coast Effects in Hollywood, as well as doing lighting and character animation.

Kozachik spearheaded an in-house robotic camera system geared to commercial work, and became involved in the early stages of production as in-house director / cameraman.

In 1986, he relocated to the Bay Area as a cameraman at Industrial Light and Magic. Favorite assignments there featured a tiny submarine in a human body for Joe Dante’s Innerspace, and a two-headed dragon for George Lucas’ Willow, while working with supervisors Dennis Muren and Phil Tippett.

Kozachik maintained relations with Los Angeles studios, freelancing as an effects DP on features and commercials there. A particular favorite was James Cameron’s The Abyss.

When Tippett opened his own studio, he asked Kozachik to DP for him on several pictures. Two favorites feature a giant scorpion in Joe Johnston’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and a villainous robot in Irvin Kershner’s Robocop sequel. Each project was a longer-term collaboration, an in-depth opportunity to practice clear storytelling and translating a director’s vision onto film.

During this period, Kozachik shifted his emphasis toward directing effects photography with a first unit mindset, that it is all about narrative and drama, selecting projects that could benefit from his animation and effects background.

In 1990, director Henry Selick’s MTV short Slow Bob was the proving ground for he and Kozachik’s subsequent alliance on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Kozachik worked with Burton, Selick, production designer Deane Taylor, and a hand picked crew to create the film’s gothic look, and adapted live action camera techniques to open up stop-motion’s dramatic potential. Nightmare is widely admired for its elegant cinematography and visual style.

Kozachik earned Disney’s first ever credit as director of photography on an animated film, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He is also credited as VFX supervisor, having devised in-camera effects and supervised optical and digital compositing.

Since then, the same team has joined forces on two other projects, James and the Giant Peach and Monkeybone.

The mostly puppet animated feature James has a softer, more pastel feel with a full range of moods appropriate for a children’s story. Digital animation, cloud tank photography, and some underwater robotic puppetry added depth to James, and a more complex shooting and compositing load for Kozachik to supervise.

Between the two shows, Kozachik hired on Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers as effects DP, first working on sequence design, then directing photography of large model spaceships in battle. Troopers was nominated for an Academy Award in 1998 for Best Visual Effects.

Monkeybone features unprecedented close interaction between live actors and stop-motion animated puppets. Kozachik joined as visual effects supervisor in pre-production, inventing the new technique while designing sequences with director, writer, and storyboard artists. He supervised on first unit, giving the director maximum flexibility while sustaining live action’s pace. Next, he directed six model and animation photography crews, and finally co-supervised compositing and CG animation.

While shooting a sequence for George Lucas’ Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Kozachik confirmed his notion of the benefits of digital imaging for animation. Aided by shooting in HD, Kozachik and his fellow crew members achieved the highest shots-per-day turnover in ILM’s history.

Following an ambitious effects shoot for the second and third installments of the Wachowski Brothers’ Matrix films, Kozachik tested digital still cameras for better image quality, for use on an animation project he wrote.

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride became the first feature shot using the new technology when Kozachik joined to direct photography for Tim Burton and Mike Johnson in England.

ALEX McDOWELL (Production Designer) integrates digital technologies with traditional design to create a unique production design process. His centralized art department comprehensively links the strands of 2D and 3D concept and set design, locations, props, lighting and camera, visual effects and post production to support the director’s vision and the film’s visual consistency.

McDowell started incorporating digital design into his design process with Fight Club. He sophisticated the process in 1999 with one of the first fully integrated digital design departments for Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, creating a realistic and intensely researched take on the world of 2054 that fulfilled the director’s desire to immerse the audience in future technology. For Spielberg’s The Terminal, he set up another cutting edge art department to push the limits of current film possibility. McDowell also created the fantastical world of Dr. Seuss’ the Cat in the Hat and in 2004 designed the production of Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in which he teamed with Burton to bring to life Roald Dahl’s classic story about eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. He has described the production as the most complicated and fascinating of his career, involving the design and build of an entire town and factory with the elaborate construction of the strange and psychedelic spaces envisioned by Burton for the Wonka factory – “Space age meets Russian constructivism meets James Bond through the lens of an Italian B movie in the timeless placeless world of Charlie Bucket.”

He is currently immersed in Breaking and Entering, an original contemporary drama written and directed by Anthony Minghella and set in London, England.

McDowell graduated from Central School of Art during the height of London’s punk years. He attributes his willingness to take risks and his expectations of collaborative artistic expression to the spirit of that era. In 1978, he founded Rocking Russian Design to design album covers, and later, music videos for musicians of every persuasion. He produced consistently arresting work for over a hundred music videos that reflected his bent for experimentation and his love of music. He relocated in 1986 from London to Los Angeles where he began a prolific career as a production designer for commercials.

His commercial work afforded him interaction with cutting-edge directors and insight into filmmaking, and by the early 90s, he segued into film production design. He quickly accrued such credits as The Lawnmower Man, The Crow, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fight Club and The Affair of the Necklace. His production design continues to be infused with the knowledge he acquired as a painter and graphic artist as exemplified by the visual coding, atmosphere, color, character, history and texture he applies to every film.

The synergy that emerged from the collaboration amongst designers, filmmakers, scientists and engineers during Minority Report inspired McDowell to launch Matter Art and Science. This uniquely networked group, committed to exploring the collaborative potential of design and engineering, art and science, is composed of members who have both a peripheral contact with pop culture and who are established at the top of their own fields.

McDowell makes his home in Los Angeles with his wife, painter Kirsten Everberg, and their two children. Despite his very demanding schedule, he is active in public speaking, participating in many international design and film conferences.

JONATHAN LUCAS (Editor) most recently worked as a supervising first assistant editor on the Warner Bros. Pictures’ epic Troy, starring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. His credits as first assistant editor include Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Fast and the Furious, 102 Dalmatians, 101 Dalmatians, Rapa Nui, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Madame Sousatzka.

As an associate editor, Lucas worked on The Postman and Waterworld. His credits as an assistant editor include Sommersby, City of Joy, Into the West, King Ralph, The Russia House, The Believers and Mr. Love, among many others.

CHRIS LEBENZON, A.C.E. (Editor) previously collaborated with Tim Burton on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, Planet of the Apes, Sleepy Hollow, Mars Attacks!, Ed Wood, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and Batman Returns.

Lebenzon has teamed up many times with award-winning producer Jerry Bruckheimer, working with him on Pearl Harbor, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Enemy of the State, Armageddon, Con Air, Crimson Tide, Days of Thunder, Beverly Hills Cop II and Top Gun. He has also collaborated with directors Tony Scott and Michael Bay.

Lebenzon is a two-time Academy Award nominee for the films Crimson Tide and Top Gun (co-editor). His other credits include XXX, Radio, The Last Boy Scout, Revenge, Midnight Run, Weird Science and Wolfen.

DANNY ELFMAN (Score and Songs) is one of the movie world’s most versatile and successful contemporary composers and has scored 12 Tim Burton films including Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman (for which he won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental and a nomination for Best Score), Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (another Grammy nomination for Best Score), Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish (Academy Award nomination) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Elfman wrote an original score for the Oscar-winning film musical Chicago and scored the worldwide box office smash Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. His other credits include Good Will Hunting (Academy Award nomination) and Men in Black (Academy Award nomination), The Hulk, Red Dragon, Men in Black II, Proof of Life, Family Man, A Simple Plan, Dolores Claiborne and the Grammy-nominated Dick Tracy, as well as Darkman, Sommersby, Dead Presidents, Black Beauty, To Die For and Mission: Impossible.