Sleepy Hollow
Short description
In 1799, a New York constable named Ichabod Crane is sent to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to look into a series of deaths. The victims have all been found decapitated, their heads missing, and the locals blame a legendary figure known as the Headless Horseman. Crane relies on reason and modern investigative methods, but the case pushes him toward explanations that science cannot easily account for. Along the way he becomes involved with Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a prominent local family. The story draws on Washington Irving's tale of the same name.
Tim Burton directed the film, the tenth of the twenty-two features he has made in chronological order, following Mars Attacks! and preceding Planet of the Apes. Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the screenplay, and Scott Rudin and Adam Schroeder produced. Johnny Depp plays Crane, with Christina Ricci as Katrina, Miranda Richardson as Lady Mary Van Tassel, Michael Gambon as Baltus Van Tassel, Casper Van Dien as Brom Van Brunt and Jeffrey Jones as Reverend Steenwyck. The credited cast numbers thirty-three, with 481 crew members credited.
Made for about 100 million dollars, the film took roughly 206 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.3 out of 10 from around 411,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2 out of 10 from more than 7,500 votes. A critics' score of 6.9 out of 10 from 129 reviews places it close to the audience ratings on both sites.
What's left behind the scenes
- The forest where the Dead Tree is located, as well as the sky above it, were built on soundstages at Leavesden Studios in England.
- One scene shows a fireplace mantelpiece in the Van Tassel house with faces carved into pumpkins. However, this tradition only arose in the 1840s, during mass Irish immigration.
- During the filming of the scene in the church, where Dr. Lancaster, played by Ian McDiarmid, dies from a blow to the head, the actor received such a strong hit that he had to be hospitalized.
- The Dead Tree in 'Sleepy Hollow' and the tree under which the graves of the servant family are located in 'The Others' are the same set piece.
- The film was shot from November 1998 to April 1999 in London and the counties of Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, and Surrey (Great Britain).
- Thanks to the development of technology (in relation to cinema), this is the first adaptation of Washington Irving’s story in which the actor playing the Headless Horseman (here, Christopher Walken) did not have to hide his head under a cloak. The actor’s head was covered with a blue mask, and was removed from the frame using computer graphics. The collar was also created using the same computer technologies.
- Crane sets fire to the windmill hoping to escape the Headless Horseman, but it explodes instead of simply burning. This is explained by the detonation of flour dust inside the building. As a result of flour dust explosions at mills, about 100 people have died in the US alone.
- The forest where the Dead Tree is located, as well as the sky above it, were artificially created in pavilions at Leavesden Studios in England.
- Casper Van Dien broke his thumb while filming a fight scene with an axe.
- Christopher Walken confessed to director Tim Burton that he didn’t know how to ride a horse only after he was cast in the role of the Headless Horseman.
- Ichabod Crane actually existed and was a very unappealing person. The actor who played him, Johnny Depp, suggested using special facial prosthetics to disfigure his appearance, but director Tim Burton wanted the basis of Crane's character to be not physical ugliness, but negative character traits, such as fastidiousness and eccentricity.
- The scene of the Headless Horseman’s attack on the family caused controversy between the producers and studio representatives. Specifically, it concerned how the Headless Horseman discovers, seizes, and kills a child (this is, of course, not shown) after the 50th minute of the film. There was a suggestion to cut the scene altogether. Tim Burton’s opinion prevailed, as he admitted that as a child he always disliked it when children in film plots were treated differently than adults, so the child in the film also perished, like his parents.
- Martin Landau and Christopher Walken appeared for free – for the opportunity to participate in Tim Burton's film.
- At the very beginning of filming one of the scenes, Casper Van Dien broke the index finger on his left hand. The actor did not stop filming, despite the pain.
- In the final scene where Crane is dragged by a horse, Johnny Depp performed the stunt himself, without a stunt double. He wore a bulletproof vest under his clothes.
- The film is based on Washington Irving's story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820).
- Martin Landau and Christopher Walken appeared in “Sleepy Hollow” for free – for the sake of participating in Burton's film.
- Christopher Walken, who played the schoolteacher in 'The Dead Zone' (1983), began his lesson by assigning his students to read Washington Irving's story 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'.
- Sleepy Hollow, the village built in the UK, became the largest full-scale set in the country, and also built in record time – three months.
- The appearance of the windmill was a decoration over 18 meters high, filmed using forced perspective (this technique is used to make an object appear taller than it actually is). The decoration was visible even from the highway located several kilometers from the filming location. In addition, decorations of the windmill's base and roof were built, as well as a one-to-four scale model. The interior view decorations (approximately 10 meters high and 7.5 meters wide) included both wooden parts and grain-grinding mechanisms. The view of the windmill from a distance was filmed in a studio pavilion, placing a one-to-four scale model with rotating wings there, with a painted sky backdrop and flames created using special effects. The final scene with the exploding, burning windmill was filmed using the model and painted backdrop. The interior walls of the soundstage were dismantled to create a space over 130 meters long and over 12 meters wide, allowing a horse-drawn carriage to race through it. For the convenience of operator Emmanuel Lubezki, everything was arranged so that he could film from above.
- Filming took place from November 1998 to April 1999 in London and the counties of Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, and Surrey.
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