Tim Burton Shuts Down ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ Sequels, Prequels or Reboots: ‘I’ve Done All That S—. I Don’t Want That to Happen to This’
Fans clamoring for another “Nightmare Before Christmas” movie should know Tim Burton is vehemently against the idea. The filmmaker, who came up with the “Nightmare” story, co-produced the film and created character designs, recently told Empire magazine that the stop-motion classic is too important to him to ever create a sequel, prequel, reboot or more.
“To me the movie is very important,” Burton said. “I’ve done sequels, I’ve done other things, I’ve done reboots, I’ve done all that shit, right? I don’t want that to happen to this. It’s nice that people are maybe interested [in another one], but I’m not. I feel like that old guy who owns a little piece of property and won’t sell to the big power-plant that wants to take my land.”
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“Get off of my land!” Burton said in a grumpy voice. “You pesky little…You ain’t getting this property! I don’t care what you want to build on it. You come on my property…Where’s my shotgun?”
Main character Jack Skellington is personal to Burton as he’s a “character that’s perceived as dark, but is really light,” the director said. “Those are the kinds of things that I love, whether it’s [Edward] Scissorhands or Batman, characters that have that. It represented all those feelings that I had. I was perceived as this dark character, when I didn’t feel that way. So it was a very personal character.”
Henry Selick directed “Nightmare Before Christmas” and worked closely with Burton on the film’s creation. In a recent interview with People magazine, Selick shared his idea for a potential “Nightmare” prequel. “There might be a more interesting story there about how Jack became the King of Halloweentown,” he said.
As for a sequel, Selick explained that the large amount of work isn’t what would deter him from creating a follow-up — rather, he just believes “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is “a perfect movie [that] came out of the perfect time, only to grow into something far bigger over the years.”
“The Nightmare Before Christmas” is now available to stream on Disney+.
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