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.”
“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+.
