FILM 1946: SLEEPY HOLLOW

FILM 1946: SLEEPY HOLLOW

TRIVIA: Johnny Depp adopted Goldeneye, the horse that played Gunpowder, Ichabod Crane's horse in this movie, when he heard it was going to be put down.

It was only after being cast as The Headless Horseman, that Christopher Walken admitted to Director Tim Burton that he actually did not know how to ride a horse.

Johnny Depp initially found the idea of Christina Ricci being his love interest in this movie, to be rather odd, seeing as he's known her since she was nine-years-old.

Historically, Ichabod Crane was a very unattractive man. Johnny Depp offered to add prosthetics to his face to make himself look ugly, but Director Tim Burton wanted to base the character on Crane's more unattractive personality traits, his reported squeamishness and eccentricity.

This movie was almost entirely shot with a blue filter. So, for the blood to appear red, the liquid used had to be bright orange.

(At around fifty-seven minutes) At the start of filming the three-way axe battle with Ray Park, Johnny Depp, and Casper Van Dien, Van Dien broke the index finger of his left hand. Although it was extremely painful, he carried on without telling anyone, as he didn't want his part cut short.

The cast and crew often said "The feeling one had walking around Sleepy Hollow's sets, and in particular the town at Lime Tree, was almost as if you were walking around the inside of Tim Burton's head."

Michael Gough came out of retirement to play Notary Hardenbrook.

Tim Burton included scenes as an homage to Disney's animated version of the Sleepy Hollow tale (featured in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)). These include the scene in which Ichabod Crane crosses the covered bridge and hears the frogs underneath croaking "Ichabod" and "Headless Horseman", the following chase sequence where Ichabod is run down and unhorsed, apparently by The Headless Horseman, and the moment in the climactic chase scene in which Ichabod runs into a tree limb, and, thrown through the air, ends up landing on the Horseman's horse backwards.

Director Tim Burton says the movie was inspired by the Gothic horror movies of Mario Bava and Hammer Film Productions. Burton brought Hammer veteran Michael Gough out of retirement for a small role, and recruited Sir Christopher Lee, a veteran of both Hammer and Bava's movies, for a cameo.

This is the first adaption of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" that doesn't involve the actor playing the Headless Horseman having to conceal his head in the cloak, thanks to advancement in technology. The head of the actor was covered with a blue mask, that was deleted by means of computer graphics. The collar was also created with CGI, to match the flow of the robe.

The Western Wood was built on a soundstage, so everything, including the weather and light, could be controlled.

Crane's final line in this movie, "the Bronx is up, but the battery's down" is in reference to the song "New York, New York".

Christopher Walken (The Headless Horseman) played a schoolteacher in The Dead Zone(1983), in the beginning of which he tells his class to read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

Johnny Depp's third collaboration with Tim Burton.

Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken appeared in Nick of Time (1995).

Ichabod's mother in the flashbacks, played by Burton's then-wife Lisa Marie Smith.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK (Tim Burton): (distorted female face): The Crone's Medusa-like appearance.