Sleepy Hollow (DVD)

Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 gothic supernatural horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely based on Washington Irving s 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow , and stars Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, with Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, Christopher Lee and Jeffrey Jones in supporting roles. The plot follows police constable Ichabod Crane (Depp) sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders in the village of Sleepy Hollow by a mysterious Headless Horseman.

Development began in 1993 at Paramount Pictures, with Kevin Yagher originally set to direct Andrew Kevin Walker s script as a low-budget slasher film. Disagreements with Paramount resulted in Yagher being demoted to prosthetic makeup designer, and Burton was hired to direct in June 1998. Filming took place from November 1998 to May 1999. The film was an international co-production between Germany and the United States.

The film had its world premiere at Mann s Chinese Theatre on November 17, 1999, and was released in the United States on November 19, 1999, by Paramount Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising the performances, direction, screenplay and musical score, as well as its dark humor, visual effects and atmosphere. It grossed approximately $207 million worldwide. Sleepy Hollow won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

Plot

In 1799, Ichabod Crane, a New York City police constable criticized for his predilection of scientific methods, is dispatched to the upstate Dutch hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, which has been plagued by a series of brutal decapitations: a wealthy father and his son, Peter and Dirk Van Garrett, and a widow, Emily Winship. Received by the insular town elders—wealthy businessman Baltus Van Tassel, town doctor Thomas Lancaster, the Reverend Steenwyck, notary James Hardenbrook, and magistrate Samuel Philipse—Ichabod learns that locals believe the killer is the undead apparition of a headless Hessian mercenary from the Revolutionary War who rides at nightfall on a black steed in search of his missing head.

Ichabod, however, is skeptical of the paranormal due to his family past. Boarding at the home of Baltus Van Tassel and his second wife, Lady Van Tassel, he is taken with Baltus spiritual daughter, Katrina, from his first marriage. When a fourth victim, Jonathan Masbath, a servant in the Van Garrett household, is killed, Ichabod takes the victim s son, Young Masbath, under his wing. Ichabod and Masbath exhume the victims on a tip from Philipse, learning that the widow died pregnant. The Horseman decapitates Philipse next. Ichabod, Young Masbath, and Katrina venture into the Western Woods to look for the Horseman s grave. They find a witch living in a cave, who reveals that the Horseman s body lies under the Tree of the Dead. Ichabod digs up the grave and discovers the skull has been taken, deducing it was stolen by someone who now commands the ghostly revenant, who comes into the world of the living through the tree and who will continue to take others heads until his own is restored to him.

That night, the Horseman kills village midwife Beth Killian and her family, as well as Katrina s suitor Brom Van Brunt when he attempts to intervene; Ichabod is wounded by the Horseman, but survives. Ichabod hypothesizes the Horseman s targets are linked by a conspiracy. Notary Hardenbrook reveals that the first victim, Peter Van Garrett, had secretly married the widow Winship, writing a new will that left his estate to her and her unborn child. Ichabod deduces that all the victims (except Brom) were either beneficiaries or witnesses to this new will, and that the Horseman s master is the person who would have otherwise inherited the estate: Baltus, Van Garrett s closest relative.

Upon discovering the accusation, Katrina angrily burns the evidence. Hardenbrook commits suicide, and Reverend Steenwyck convokes a town meeting at the church to discredit Ichabod, but Baltus bursts in, announcing that the Horseman has killed Lady Van Tassel. The Horseman attacks the church, but is unable to enter. In the chaos, the remaining elders turn on each other; Steenwyck kills Lancaster and is in turn killed by Baltus, who is harpooned and decapitated by the Horseman.

Initially concluding that Katrina controls the Horseman, Ichabod discovers that the sigil she had drawn underneath his bed and in the church, which he believed summoned the Horseman, was really one of protection. He finds that a wound on Lady Van Tassel s decapitated body was caused post-mortem. Van Tassel, alive and well, reveals herself as the master of the Horseman. She faked her death and killed the Van Tassel s servant girl, Sarah, to plant her body as hers. She takes Katrina to the windmill, where she explains her true heritage. She and her twin sister were members of the impoverished Archer family who were evicted years ago by Peter Van Garrett, when he favored Baltus and his family instead. She swore revenge against Van Garrett and all who had wronged her family, pledging herself to Satan if he would raise the Horseman to avenge her by killing them, which would allow her to claim the Van Garrett and Van Tassel estates uncontested. Manipulating her way into the Van Tassel household, she used fear, blackmail, and lust to manipulate the other elders into her plot. Having eliminated all other heirs and witnesses, as well as her sister – the crone of the woods– for aiding Ichabod, she summons the Horseman to kill Katrina, the last person remaining in the way of her plans.

Ichabod and Masbath rush to the windmill as the Horseman arrives. After an escape that destroys the windmill and a subsequent chase to the Tree of the Dead, Ichabod retrieves the Horseman s skull from Van Tassel and returns it to him, breaking the curse and setting the Horseman free from Van Tassel s control. With his head restored, the Horseman spares Katrina and instead abducts Van Tassel, giving her a bloody kiss and returning to Hell via the Tree of the Dead with her in tow, fulfilling her end of the deal . With the case solved, Ichabod returns to New York City with Katrina and Young Masbath, just in time for the new century.

Cast

• Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane: Crane is a quirky, yet sympathetic constable infatuated with integrating modern science into police procedures (early forensic science), but is very squeamish at the sight of blood and bugs.
• Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel: Ichabod s love interest and the only heir to one of the town s richest farmers. Ricci described her character as a princess-y character, very one-sided, no emotional depth.
• Miranda Richardson as Lady Mary Van Tassel (née Archer; she falsely uses Preston as her maiden name): The aloof wife of Baltus and stepmother of Katrina, who is revealed to be a vengeful witch. Richardson also portrays the Crone Witch, Lady Van Tassel s sister.
• Michael Gambon as Baltus Van Tassel: Katrina s father. After Peter Van Garrett is murdered, he is placed as the leader of the town.
• Casper Van Dien as Brom Van Brunt: A strong and arrogant aristocratic man who is romantically involved with Katrina.
• Jeffrey Jones as Reverend Steenwyck: The austere, corrupt town pastor.
• Christopher Lee as the Burgomaster.
• Richard Griffiths as Magistrate Samuel Philipse: The drunken town magistrate.
• Ian McDiarmid as Dr. Thomas Lancaster: The town doctor and surgeon.
• Michael Gough as Notary James Hardenbrook: The wizened, cowardly town banker.
• Marc Pickering as Young Masbath: An orphan who looks towards Ichabod as a father figure after his father is slain by the Horseman.
• Lisa Marie as Lady Crane (in flashbacks): Ichabod s mother who practiced benign witchcraft, for which she was killed by her strict religious husband.
• Steven Waddington as Mr. Killian
• Christopher Walken and Ray Park as the Headless Horseman: A brutal and sadistic Hessian mercenary sent to America during the American Revolutionary War who loses his head during battle. Walken portrays the Hessian while Park performs the Headless Horseman.
• Claire Skinner as Beth Killian: The town midwife.
• Alun Armstrong as the High Constable
• Mark Spalding as Jonathan Masbath
• Jessica Oyelowo as Sarah
• Tony Maudsley as Van Ripper
• Peter Guinness as Lord Crane (in flashbacks): Ichabod s devoutly religious father who tortured and killed his wife for practicing witchcraft.
• Sean Stephens as Thomas Killian

Other roles include Michael Feast as Spotty Man, Jamie Foreman as Thuggish Constable, Philip Martin Brown as a Constable, and an uncredited Martin Landau as Peter Van Garrett, Sleepy Hollow s chief citizen until his death at the hands of the Headless Horseman.

Production

Development

In 1993, Kevin Yagher, a make-up effects designer who had turned to directing with Tales from the Crypt, had the notion to adapt Washington Irving s short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow into a feature film. Through his agent, Yagher was introduced to Andrew Kevin Walker; they spent a few months working on a film treatment that transformed Ichabod Crane from a schoolmaster from Connecticut to a banished New York City detective. Yagher and Walker subsequently pitched Sleepy Hollow to various studios and production companies, eventually securing a deal with producer Scott Rudin, who had been impressed with Walker s unproduced spec script for Seven. Rudin optioned the project to Paramount Pictures in a deal that had Yagher set to direct, with Walker scripting; the pair would share story credit. Following the completion of Hellraiser: Bloodline, Yagher had planned Sleepy Hollow as a low-budget production— a pretentious slasher film with a spectacular murder every five minutes or so. Paramount disagreed on the concept and demoted Yagher s involvement to prosthetic makeup designer. They never really saw it as a commercial movie, producer Adam Schroeder noted. The studio thinks old literary classic and they think The Crucible. We started developing it before horror movies came back.

Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing revived studio interest in 1998. Schroeder, who shepherded Tim Burton s Edward Scissorhands as a studio executive at 20th Century Fox in 1990, suggested that Burton direct the film. Francis Ford Coppola s minimal production duties came from American Zoetrope; Burton only became aware of Coppola s involvement during the editing process when he was sent a copy of Sleepy Hollow s trailer and saw Coppola s name on it. Burton, coming off the troubled production of Superman Lives, was hired to direct in June 1998. I had never really done something that was more of a horror film, he explained, and it s funny, because those are the kind of movies that I like probably more than any other genre. His interest in directing a horror film influenced by his love for Hammer Film Productions and Black Sunday—particularly the supernatural feel they evoked as a result of being filmed primarily on sound stages. As a result, Sleepy Hollow is a homage to various Hammer Film Productions, including Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, and other films such as Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, various Roger Corman horror films, Jason and the Argonauts, and Scream Blacula Scream. The image of the Headless Horseman had fascinated Burton during his apprenticeship as a Disney animator at CalArts in the early 1980s. One of my teachers had worked on the Disney version as one of the layout artists on the chase, and he brought in some layouts from it, so that was exciting. It was one of the things that maybe shaped what I like to do. Burton worked with Walker on rewrites, but Rudin suggested that Tom Stoppard rewrite the script to add to the comical aspects of Ichabod s bumbling mannerisms, and emphasize the character s romance with Katrina. His work went uncredited through the WGA screenwriting credit system.

While Johnny Depp was Burton s first choice for the role of Ichabod Crane, Paramount required him to consider Brad Pitt, Liam Neeson and Daniel Day-Lewis. Depp was cast in July 1998 for his third collaboration with Burton. The actor wanted Ichabod to parallel Irving s description of the character in the short story. This included a long prosthetic snipe nose, huge ears, and elongated fingers. Paramount turned down his suggestions, and after Depp read Tom Stoppard s rewrite of the script, he was inspired to take the character even further. I always thought of Ichabod as a very delicate, fragile person who was maybe a little too in touch with his feminine side, like a frightened little girl, Depp explained. He did not wish to portray the character as a typical action star would have, and instead took inspiration by Angela Lansbury s performance in Death on the Nile. It s good, Burton reasoned, because I m not the greatest action director, or the greatest director in any genre, and he s not the greatest action star, or the greatest star in any genre. Depp modeled Ichabod s detective personality from Basil Rathbone in the 1939 Sherlock Holmes film series. He also studied Roddy McDowall s acting for additional influence. Burton added that the idea was to try to find an elegance in action of the kind that Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing or Vincent Price had. Sleepy Hollow also reunited Burton with Jeffrey Jones (from Beetlejuice and Ed Wood) as Reverend Steenwyck, Christopher Walken (Max Shreck in Batman Returns) as the Hessian Horseman, Martin Landau (Ed Wood) in a cameo role, and Hammer veteran Michael Gough (Alfred in Burton s Batman films), whom Burton tempted out of retirement. The Hammer influence was further confirmed by the casting of Christopher Lee in a small role as the Burgomaster who sends Crane to Sleepy Hollow.

Filming

The original intention had been to shoot Sleepy Hollow predominantly on location with a $30 million budget. Towns were scouted throughout Upstate New York along the Hudson Valley, and the filmmakers decided on Tarrytown for an October 1998 start date. The Historic Hudson Valley organization assisted in scouting locations, which included the Philipsburg Manor House and forests in the Rockefeller State Park Preserve. They had a wonderful quality to them, production designer Rick Heinrichs reflected on the locations, but it wasn t quite lending itself to the sort of expressionism that we were going for, which wanted to express the feeling of foreboding. Disappointed, the filmmakers scouted locations in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and considered using Dutch colonial villages and period town recreations in the Northeastern United States. When no suitable existing location could be found, coupled with a lack of readily available studio space in the New York area needed to house the production s large number of sets, producer Scott Rudin suggested the UK.

Rudin believed Britain offered the level of craftsmanship in period detail, painting and costuming that was suitable for the film s design. Having directed Batman entirely in Britain, Burton agreed, and designers from Batman s art department were employed by Paramount for Sleepy Hollow. As a result, principal photography was pushed back to November 20, 1998, at Leavesden Film Studios, which had been recently vacated by Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The majority of filming took place at Leavesden, with studio other work at Shepperton Studios, where the massive Tree of the Dead set was built using Stage H. Production then moved to the Culden Faw Estate, Hambleden for a month-long shoot in March, where the town of Sleepy Hollow was constructed. We came to England figuring we would find a perfect little town, producer Adam Schroeder recalled, and then we had to build it anyway. Filming in Britain continued through April, and a few last minute scenes were shot using a sound stage in Yonkers, New York the following May.

Design

Responsible for the film s production design was Rick Heinrichs, whom Burton intended to use on Superman Lives. While the production crew was always going to build a substantial number of sets, the decision was made early on that optimally fulfilling Burton s vision would necessitate shooting Sleepy Hollow in a totally controlled environment at Leavesden Film Studios. The production design was influenced by Burton s love for Hammer Film Productions and the film Black Sunday (1960)—particularly the supernatural feel they evoked as a result of being filmed primarily on sound stages. Heinrichs was also influenced by American colonial architecture, German Expressionism, Dr. Seuss illustrations, and Hammer s Dracula Has Risen from the Grave.

One sound stage at Leavesden was dedicated to the Forest to Field set, for the scene in which the Headless Horseman races out of the woods and into a field. This stage was then transformed into, variously, a graveyard, a corn field, a field of harvested wheat, a churchyard, and a snowy battlefield. In addition, a small backlot area was devoted to a New York City street and waterfront tank.

Cinematography

Burton was impressed by the cinematography in Great Expectations (1998) and hired Emmanuel Lubezki as Sleepy Hollow s director of photography. Initially, Lubezki and Burton contemplated shooting the film in black and white, and in old square Academy ratio. When that proved unfeasible, they opted for an almost monochromatic effect which would enhance the fantasy aspect. Burton and Lubezki intentionally planned the over-dependency of smoke and soft lighting to accompany the film s sole wide-angle lens strategy. Lubezki also used Hammer horror and Mexican lucha films from the 1960s, such as Santo Contra los Zombis and Santo vs. las Mujeres Vampiro. Lighting effects increased the dynamic energy of the Headless Horseman, while the contrast of the film stock was increased in post-production to add to the monochromatic feel.

Leavesden Studios, a converted airplane factory, presented problems because of its relatively low ceilings. This was less of an issue for The Phantom Menace, in which set height was generally achieved by digital means. Our visual choices get channeled and violent, Heinrichs elaborated, so you end up with liabilities that you tend to exploit as virtues. When you ve got a certain ceiling height, and you re dealing with painted backings, you need to push atmosphere and diffusion. This was particularly the case in several exteriors that were built on sound stages. We would mitigate the disadvantages by hiding lights with teasers and smoke.

Visual effects

The majority of Sleepy Hollow s 150 visual effects shots were handled by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), while Kevin Yagher supervised the human and creature effects. Framestore also assisted on digital effects, and The Mill handled motion control photography. In part a reaction to the computer-generated effects in Mars Attacks!, Burton opted to use as limited an amount of digital effects as possible. Ray Park, who served as the Headless Horseman stunt double, wore a blue ski mask for the chroma key effect, digitally removed by ILM. Burton and Heinrichs applied to Sleepy Hollow many of the techniques they had used in stop motion animation on Vincent—such as forced perspective sets.

The windmill was a 60-foot-tall forced-perspective exterior (visible to highway travellers miles away), a base and rooftop set and a quarter-scale miniature. The interior of the mill, which was about 30 feet high and 25 feet wide, featured wooden gears equipped with mechanisms for grinding flour. A wider view of the windmill was rendered on a Leavesden soundstage set with a quarter-scale windmill, complete with rotating vanes, painted sky backdrop and special-effects fire. It was scary for the actors who were having burning wood explode at them, Heinrichs recalled. There were controls in place and people standing by with hoses, of course, but there s always a chance of something going wrong. For the final shot of the burning mill exploding, the quarter-scale windmill and painted backdrop were erected against the outside wall of the flight shed , a spacious hangar on the far side of Leavesden Studios. The hangar s interior walls were knocked down to create a 450-foot run, with a 40-foot width still allowing for coach and cameras. Heinrichs tailored the sets so cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki could shoot from above without seeing the end of the stage.

Actor Ian McDiarmid, who portrayed Dr. Lancaster, had just finished another Leavesden production with Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. He compared the aesthetics of the two films, stating that physical sets helped the actors get into a natural frame of mind. Having come from the blue-screen world of Star Wars it was wonderful to see gigantic, beautifully made perspective sets and wonderful clothes, and also people recreating a world. It s like the way movies used to be done

Musical score

Sleepy Hollow: Music from the Motion Picture
Soundtrack album by Danny Elfman
Released	November 16, 1999
Length	67:52
Label	Hollywood Records

The film score was written and produced by Danny Elfman. It won the Golden Satellite Award and was also nominated by the Las Vegas Film Critics.

Release

To promote Sleepy Hollow, Paramount Pictures featured the film s trailer at San Diego Comic-Con International in August 1999. The following October, the studio launched a website, which Variety described as being the most ambitious online launch of a motion picture to date. The site (sleepyhollowmovie.com) offered visitors live video chats with several of the filmmakers hosted by Yahoo! Movies and enabled them to send postcards, view photos, trailers and a six-minute behind-the-scenes featurette edited from a broadcast that aired on Entertainment Tonight. Extensive tours of 10 sets were offered, where visitors were able to roam around photographs, including the sets for the entire town of Sleepy Hollow, forest, church, graveyard and covered bridge. Arthur Cohen, president of worldwide marketing for Paramount, explained that the Web-friendly pre-release reports from websites such as Ain t It Cool News and Dark Horizons encouraged the studio to create the site. In the weeks pre-dating the release of Sleepy Hollow, a toy line was marketed by McFarlane Toys. Simon & Schuster also published The Art of Sleepy Hollow (ISBN 0671036572), which included the film s screenplay and an introduction by Tim Burton. A novelization, also published by Simon & Schuster, was written by Peter Lerangis.

Sleepy Hollow was released in the United States on November 19, 1999, in 3,069 theaters, grossing $30,060,467 in its opening weekend at the No. 2 spot behind The World Is Not Enough. Sleepy Hollow eventually earned $101,068,340 in domestic gross, and $106 million in foreign sales, coming to a worldwide total of $207,068,340. David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family criticized the film s financial success from the exaggeration of gore. The real impact is not so much that violent images create violent behavior, Walsh explained, but that they create an atmosphere of disrespect. Burton addressed the concerns as a matter of opinion. Everyone has a different perception of things. When I was a kid, Burton continued, I was probably more scared by seeing John Wayne or Barbra Streisand on the big screen than by seeing violence.

Paramount Home Video first released Sleepy Hollow on DVD in the United States on May 23, 2000. The HD DVD release came in July 2006, while the film was released on Blu-ray Disc two years later, in June 2008. An unofficial video game adaptation of the film titled Cursed Fates: The Headless Horseman was released by Fenomen Games and Big Fish Games on January 6, 2013. For the 20th anniversary, Paramount Home Entertainment released a Blu-ray digibook with a photobook containing the original story on September 24, 2019.

Reception

Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 70% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 123 reviews with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site s critics consensus states, It isn t Tim Burton s best work, but Sleepy Hollow entertains with its stunning visuals and creepy atmosphere. Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 35 reviews from mainstream critics, considered to be generally favorable . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B− on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert praised Johnny Depp s performance and Tim Burton s methods of visual design. Johnny Depp is an actor able to disappear into characters, Ebert continued, never more readily than in one of Burton s films. Richard Corliss wrote, in his review for Time, Burton s richest, prettiest, weirdest since Batman Returns. The simple story bends to his twists, freeing him for an exercise in high style.

David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor highly praised Burton s filmmaking and the high-spirited acting of cast, but believed Andrew Kevin Walker s writing was too repetitious and formulaic for the third act.

Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly wrote Sleepy Hollow is a choppily plotted crowd-pleaser that lacks the seductive, freakazoid alchemy of Burton s best work. Gleiberman compared the film to The Mummy, and said it feels like every high-powered action climax of the last 10 years. Personally, I d rather see Burton so intoxicated by a movie that he lost his head.

Andrew Johnston of Time Out New York wrote: Like the best of Burton s films, Sleepy Hollow takes place in a world so richly imagined that, despite its abundant terrors, you can t help wanting to step through the screen.

Mick LaSalle, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, criticized Burton s perceived image as a creative artist. All Sleepy Hollow has going for it is art direction, and even in that it falls back on cliché.

Doug Walker linked the film to the Hammer Films style of horror cinematography, considering it an homage to those movies, comparing the usage of dignified British actors, choices in color and movie sets and character relations. Walker gave it the merit of recreating the very specific genre of Hammer Films, citing the skill and clever casting Burton used to manage this.

Jonathan Rosenbaum from the Chicago Reader called Sleepy Hollow a ravishing visual experience, a pretty good vehicle for some talented American and English actors, but concluded that the film was a missed opportunity to depict an actual representation of the short story. Burton s fidelity is exclusively to the period feeling he gets from disreputable Hammer horror films and a few images culled from Ichabod and Mr. Toad. When it comes to one of America s great stories, Burton obviously couldn t care less.

Accolades

Awards

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipients	Result
Academy Awards	March 26, 2000	Best Art Direction	Rick Heinrichs, Peter Young	Won
		Best Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki	Nominated
		Best Costume Design	Colleen Atwood	Nominated
British Academy Film Awards	April 9, 2000	Best Production Design	Rick Heinrichs	Won
		Best Costume Design	Colleen Atwood	Won
		Best Visual Effects	Jim Mitchell, Kevin Yagher, Joss Williams, Paddy Eason	Nominated
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	June 6, 2000	Best Horror Film	Scott Rudin, Adam Schroeder	Nominated
		Best Director	Tim Burton	Nominated
		Best Writing	Andrew Kevin Walker	Nominated
		Best Actor	Johnny Depp	Nominated
		Best Actress	Christina Ricci	Won
		Best Supporting Actor	Christopher Walken	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actress	Miranda Richardson	Nominated
		Best Music	Danny Elfman	Won
		Best Costume	Colleen Atwood	Nominated
		Best Make-up	Kevin Yagher, Peter Owen	Nominated
		Best Special Effects	Jim Mitchell, Kevin Yagher, Joss Williams, Paddy Eason	Nominated
American Society of Cinematographers	February 20, 2000	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki	Nominated
Art Directors Guild	February 8, 2000	Excellence in Production Design for a Feature Film	Rick Heinrichs, Les Tompkins, John Dexter, Kevin Phipps, John Wright Stevens, Ken Court, Andrew Nicholson, Bill Hoes, Julian Ashby, Gary Tompkins, Nick Navarro	Won
Awards Circuit Community Awards	1999	Best Art Direction	Rick Heinrichs	Won
		Best Costume Design	Colleen Atwood	Won
		Best Sound		Nominated
		Best Visual Effects		Nominated
BMI Film & Television Awards	December 8, 2014	BMI Film Music Award	Danny Elfman	Won
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	May 9, 2000	Favorite Actor – Horror	Johnny Depp	Won
		Favorite Actress – Horror	Christina Ricci	Won
		Favorite Supporting Actress – Horror	Miranda Richardson	Won
		Favorite Supporting Actor – Horror	Marc Pickering	Nominated
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards	December 12, 1999	Best Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki	Won
Chicago Film Critics Association	March 13, 2000	Best Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki	Nominated
Costume Designers Guild	February 25, 2000	Excellence in Period/Fantasy Costume Design for Film	Colleen Atwood	Won
Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards	March 19, 2000	Best Character Makeup – Feature	Kevin Yagher, Peter Owen, Liz Tagg, Paul Gooch	Won
International Film Music Critics Association	February 23, 2012	Best Archival Release of an Existing Score	Danny Elfman (also for Pee-wee s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride and Alice in Wonderland)	Won
International Film Music Critics Association	February 4, 1999	Film Score of the Year	Danny Elfman	Nominated
International Horror Guild	May 12, 2000	Best Film		Nominated
Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists	May 12, 2000	Best Foreign Director	Tim Burton	Nominated
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards	January 18, 2000	Best Score	Danny Elfman	Nominated
		Best Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki	Nominated
		Best Costume Design	Colleen Atwood	Nominated
		Best Production Design	Rick Heinrichs	Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards	December 12, 1999	Best Production Design	Rick Heinrichs	Won
MTV Movie Awards	June 5, 2000	Best Villain	Christopher Walken	Nominated
Motion Picture Sound Editors	December 15, 1999	Best Sound Editing – Effects & Foley	Skip Lievsay, Thomas W. Small, Sean Garnhart, Lewis Goldstein, Paul Urmson, Craig Berkey, Richard L. Anderson, John Pospisil, Michael Dressel, Scott Curtis, Matthew Harrison, Tammy Fearing	Nominated
National Society of Film Critics	January 8, 2000	Best Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki	Nominated
New York Film Critics Circle Awards	January 9, 2000	Best Cinematographer	Emmanuel Lubezki	Runner-up
Online Film & Television Association	January 12, 2000	Best Original Score	Danny Elfman	Nominated
		Best Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki	Nominated
		Best Production Design	Rick Heinrichs, Ken Court, John Dexter, Andy Nicholson, Kevin Phipps, Leslie Tomkins, Peter Young	Won
		Best Costume Design	Colleen Atwood	Nominated
		Best Makeup and Hairstyling	Kevin Yagher, Peter Owen, Liz Tagg, Paul Gooch, Susan Parkinson, Bernadette Mazur, Tamsin Dorling	Nominated
		Best Sound Mixing	Lee Dichter, Robert Fernandez, Skip Lievsay, Frank Morrone	Nominated
		Best Sound Effects	Skip Lievsay	Nominated
		Best Visual Effects	James Mitchell, Kevin Yagher, Joss Williams, Paddy Eason	Nominated
		Best Official Film Website	www.sleepyhollow.com	Nominated
Online Film Critics Society	January 2, 2000	Best Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki	Won
Santa Fe Film Critics Circle Awards	January 9, 2000	Best Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki	Won
Satellite Awards	January 16, 2000	Best Actor – Musical or Comedy	Johnny Depp	Nominated
		Best Original Score	Danny Elfman	Won
		Best Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki	Won
		Best Art Direction	Ken Court, John Dexter, Rick Heinrichs and Andy Nicholson	Won
		Best Costume Design	Colleen Atwood	Won
		Best Editing	Chris Lebenzon	Nominated
		Best Sound	Gary Alpers, Skip Lievsay, Frank Morrone	Won
		Best Visual Effects	Jim Mitchell, Joss Williams	Nominated
Teen Choice Awards	August 6, 2000	Film – Choice Actress	Christina Ricci	Nominated
Young Artist Awards	March 19, 2000	Best Performance in a Feature Film: Leading Young Actress	Christina Ricci	Nominated

Reboot

On June 10, 2022, Paramount has developed the reboot of Sleepy Hollow with Lindsey Beer planned to write and direct it.

Condition

New

Publisher

Paramount Home Video

Age Group

Adult

Rating MPA

R

Recording Studio

Paramount Home Video

Format

DVD

ISBN-10

0792164911

ISBN-13

9780792164913

UPC / EAN

097363296225

Year

1999

ReleaseDate

1999-11-19

RuntimeMins

105

RuntimeStr

1h 45min

Awards

Won 1 Oscar, 28 wins & 44 nominations total

Directors

Tim Burton

Writers

Washington Irving, Kevin Yagher, Andrew Kevin Walker

Stars

Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson

Produced by

Francis Ford Coppola, Celia D. Costas, Larry Franco, Dieter Geissler, Mark Roybal, Scott Rudin, Adam Schroeder, Andrew Kevin Walker, Kevin Yagher

Music by

Danny Elfman

Cinematography by

Emmanuel Lubezki

Film Editing by

Chris Lebenzon, Joel Negron

Casting By

Susie Figgis, Ilene Starger

Production Design by

Rick Heinrichs

Art Direction by

Ken Court, John Dexter, Andy Nicholson, Kevin Phipps, Leslie Tomkins

Set Decoration by

Peter Young

Costume Design by

Colleen Atwood

Makeup Department

Colleen Callaghan, Tamsin Dorling Barbosa, Paul Gooch, Don Kozma, Bernadette Mazur, Peter Owen, Susan Parkinson, Astrid Schikorra, Kirstie Stanway, Liz Tagg, Gary J. Tunnicliffe, Kelly Marazzi, Demelza Rogers, Leda Shawyer, Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou

Production Management

Ramona Diaz Sanchez, David Dresher, Jan Foster, Ben Link, Dusty Symonds, Chantal Feghali

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

Edward Brett, Ben Howarth, Patrick Mangan, Alan Munro, Christopher Newman, Janet Nielsen, Trevor Puckle, Thomas A. Reilly, Ken Shane, Sarah Wheale

Art Department

Terry Apsey, Julian Ashby, Ken Bacon, Ravi Bansal, Paul Beeson, Bill Boes, Mauro Borrelli, Daniel Boxer, Mariko Braswell, Adam Brockbank, Philip Canfield, Shannon Canfield, Teresa Kelly Canfield, Martin Charles, Mick Chubbock, Allan Croucher, Stephen Dobric, Nicholas Eiloart, Paul Hearn, Robert Hill, Tracey Holmes, James Hunt, Christine Ivall, Michael Anthony Jackson, Stuart Kearns, Laurie Kerr, Tina Khayat, Michael King, Bernard Maisner, Jon Marson, Kirstin Mooney, Simon Murton, Nick Navarro, John New, John Ottesen, Robert Park, Christine Parkin, Julie Pitt, Steven Pollecutt, Jonathon Rosen, Robert Butch Samarzich, Raymond M. Samitz, Debra Schutt, Ken Stachini, Adrian Start, John Wright Stevens, Gerald Sullivan, Steve Taylor, Gary Tomkins, Richard A. Ventre, Lavinia Waters, Michael Weaver, Terry Wells, Suzan Wexler, Su Whitaker, Dominic Ackland-Snow, Will Ayres, Dick Budden, Jo Budden, Kelvin Cook, Hillery Cope, Mel Claus Crawford, Cosmas A. Demetriou, Darren Fitzsimons, Gavin Gordon, Steve Harris, Emma Harrison, Chris Hawkins, Robin Heinson, Robert A. Kennedy, Jeffrey Mossa, Brian Muir, Wolfgang Osterholzer, Peter Pace, Addison Pettit, Daren Reynolds, Keith Short, Sophie Tarver, Daniel Thompson, Dicken Warner, Jake Wells, William Wells, Timna Woollard

Sound Department

Gary Alper, Richard L. Anderson, James Ashwill, Matt Bainbridge, Bob Baron, Craig Berkey, David Boulton, John T. Cucci, Scott Curtis, Tony Dawe, Lee Dichter, Michael Dressel, Tammy Fearing, Robert Fernandez, Chris Fielder, Dave Flynch, Sean Garnhart, Lewis Goldstein, Chris Gurney, Robin Harlan, Matthew Harrison, Ruth Hernandez, Harry Higgins, Bradford L. Hohle, Lisa J. Levine, Linda Lew, Skip Lievsay, Marissa Littlefield, Todd Milner, Sarah Monat, Frank Morrone, Shawn Murphy, Dan O Connell, Bob Olari, Bill Orrico, John Pospisil, Fred Rosenberg, Randy Singer, Thomas W. Small, Ted Swanscott, Paul Urmson, David Acord, Jaya Bishop, Benjamin Cheah, Mike Chock, Phillip Fuller, Heather Gross, Steve Mayer, Cate Montana, David Pastecchi, Allan Zaleski

Special Effects by

Jonathan Abbas-Klahr, Tony Acosta Jr., Eric Acosta, Dave Allum, Jonathan Angell, Barry Best, Brian Best, Stephen Bettles, Evan Brainard, John Brown, Sarah Brunsdon, Ryan Conder, Mitchell J. Coughlin, Jill Crosby, Pamela Cveticanin, Zach Cveticanin, Michael Dawson, Frank Diettinger, Manex Efrem, Rebecca Fisher, Rodney Fuller, Carmila Gittens, Ken Gittens, Tamzine Hanks, Shaune Harrison, Graham High, Kate Hill, Andrea Hochgatterer-Kowland, John Holmes, Mathew Horton, Jonathan Klane, John Lambert, Andy Lee, Grant Mason, Tony Matijevich, David Miner Jr., Brian Morrison, Day Murch, Kate Murray, Roger Nichols, Ron Ottesen, Steve Paton, Justin Pitkethly, Jason Reed, Matthew Roberts, Jonathan Spence, Howard Swindell, Derek Tomblin, Mario Torres Jr., Mario Torres, Gary J. Tunnicliffe, Claire Jane Vranian, Joss Williams, Ian Wingrove, Chris Yagher, Kevin Yagher, Noel Brevick, Duncan Capp, Simon Cockren, Garry Cooper, Dave Crownshaw, Keith Dawson, Marlene Efrem, Joe Halford, Karin Hanson, Roland Hathaway, Toby Hawkes, Fliss Jaine, Terry Jones, Anthony Lucero, Chris Manger, John Mason, Martin Marty McLaughlin, Mark Raymond, Stephen Shelley, Lucien Stephenson, Neil Toddy Todd, Victoria Williams, Gareth Wingrove

Visual Effects by

Shadi Almassizadeh, Stephen Aplin, Joel Aron, Trang Bach, Chris Bayz, Randall K. Bean, Rob Blue, Barbara Brennan, Cathy Burrow, Lawrence Carroll, Tami Carter, Lanny Cermak, Kyle Clark, Richard Clarke, Grady Cofer, Theresa Corrao, Gail Currey, Julie D Antoni, Peter Daulton, Scott David, Matthew Davies, Adrian De Wet, Tabitha Dean, Robert DeHaan, Michael Di Como, Paddy Eason, Raul Essig, Tom Fejes, Ian Fellows, Heather Fishlock, Richard Friedlander, Howard Gersh, Adam Glasman, Dan Glass, Susan Goldsmith, Caroleen Green, Howard Green, Darrel Griffin, Chris Grottick, Robert Hall, Jonathan Harb, Libby Hazell, Christophe Hery, Kela Hicks, Jan Hogevold, John Horn, David Horsley, Christopher Horvath, Polly Ing, Patrick Jarvis, Drew Jones, Eleanor Jones, Louis Katz, Susan Kelly-Andrews, Bill Kimberlin, Adrian Leaman, Scott Leberecht, Siobhan Lo, Roz Lowrie, Jeff Mann, Robert Marinic, Scott Marriott, Jennifer McKnew, Joseph Metten, Neil Michka, Mark S. Miller, Neil Miller, Richard Miller, Michael Min, Jim Mitchell, Terry Molatore, Jack Mongovan, Chris Monks, Stephen Murphy, Aaron Muszalski, Patrick Neary, Mark Nelmes, Ken Nielsen, Dominic Parker, Eddie Pasquarello, Mayur Patel, Alex Payman, Alexander Pouchkarev, Brennan Prevatt, Scott Prior, Vishwa Ranjan, Rick Rische, Justin Ritter, Elsa Rodriguez, Kim Ross, Jonathan Rothbart, Joe Salazar, Ellen Schade, Frederic Schmidt, Sean Schur, Dave Scott, M. Zachary Sherman, Jason H. Snell, John Stillman, Chris Stone, David Sullivan, Kat Szuminska, Catherine Tate, Jon Thum, Steve Tizzard, Gavin Toomey, Kate Turner, Bruce Vecchitto, Peter Ward, David Washburn, Robert Weaver, David Weitzberg, Dean Yurke, Katharine Baird, Chris Crowell, Rob Delicata, Mark Fiorenza, Mark L. Holmes, Jiri Jacknowitz, Oliver James, Matt Kasmir, Matt Linder, Jim Morris, Joe Pavlo, George Sakellariou, Katie Scheid, Gary Shaw, Katrina Stovold, Elbert Yen

Stunts

Riky Ash, Marc Cass, Danielle da Costa, Kelly Dent, Sarah Franzl, Nick Gillard, Paul Herbert, Jeff Hewitt-Davis, Sy Hollands, Rob Inch, Rowley Irlam, Vincent Keane, Luke Kearney, Jo McLaren, Brian Nickels, Ray Park, Dominic Preece, C.C. Smiff, Ian van Temperley, William Willoughby, Richard Bradshaw, Ricardo Cruz, Tim Gallin, Charles Page

Camera and Electrical Department

Patrick Capone, Clive Coote, Tony Cridlin, Kevin Edland, Gene Engels, John Ferguson, Kevin Fraser, Conrad L. Hall, Conrad W. Hall, Peter Hannan, John Higgins, William Hines, Oliver Loncraine, Bruce MacCallum, Todd MacNicholl, Brian Martin, David Morgan, Billy Patsos, George Patsos, Miles Proudfoot, Bob Smith, Paul Stewart, Paul Wilcox, Nigel Willoughby, Micky Wilson, John Bailie, Robert Binnall, Rohan Berry Crickmar, Laurence Edwards, Harry Elvin, Danny Espey, Jon Euesden, Alan Grayley, Tim Guffin, James Harker, Adam Harris, Brad Larner, Adam Lee, Vince Madden, James M. McEwen, Neil Munro, Russell O Connor, Franz Pagot, Gary Smith, Ian Speed, Stefan Stankowski, Joel Tishcoff, John Ward, Martin Ward

Casting Department

Kate Bryden, Brendan Donnison, Kim Miscia, Janice Wilde

Costume and Wardrobe Department

Joanna Brett, Anthony Brookman, Lou Durkin, Morgan Elliott, Philip Goldsworthy, Alex Harwood, Ingrid Price, Suzi Turnbull, Dale Wibben, Dominic Young, Marianne Agertoft, Sean Barrett, Katherine Burchill, Richard Cooke, Steve Gell, Rosie Grant, Sheila Grover, Fliss Jaine, Carlos Rosario

Editorial Department

Glenn Allen, Meredith Apel, Sue Bodnar, Ray Lau, Dana L. Marker, Nadia Naimi, Joel Negron, Jim Passon, Jamie Pearson, Dominic Young, Elise DuRant, Kacie Haggerty

Location Management

Declan Baldwin, Simon Burgess, Keith Hatcher

Music Department

Craig Anderson, Julie Andrews, Roger Argente, John Barclay, Steve Bartek, Pete Beachill, Richard Bissill, Julian Bratolyubov, Andy Brown, Nicholas Bucknall, Heather Cairncross, Chris Cozens, Peter Davies, Yona Dunsford, Sarah Eyden, Robert Fernandez, Vic Fraser, Cathy Giles, Mitchell Leib, Joe Lisanti, The London Oratory School Schola, Marc Mann, Mark McKenzie, Shawn Murphy, Mark Nightingale, Anna Noakes, Jenny O Grady, Albert Lloyd Olson, Conrad Pope, Nic Ratner, Liz Schrek, Ellen Segal, Debra Skeen, David Slonaker, Ron Vermillion, Graham Walker, Lawrence Wallington, Allan Wilson, Warren Zielinski, Mark Berrow, Rachel Bolt, Richard Cookson, Paul Kegg, Jennifer Nash, Everton Nelson, Nicolas Santos, Allen Walley, Bruce White

Script and Continuity Department

Natasha Coombs, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, Tom Stoppard

Transportation Department

James Fanning, Brian Hathaway, David Gwyther, David Rosenbaum

Additional Crew

John Besmehn, Samantha Black, John A. Cohen, Matt Cooke, Michael Culling, Eben Davidson, Shirley Davis, Robert Dawson, Christi Dembrowski, Steve Dent, Deb Dyer, Ben Famiglietti, Sarah Feinberg-Galan, Lorraine Fennell, Derek Frey, Brian Gibbs, Edward Goemans, Richard Goodwin, Vicki Harvey-Piper, Nathan Holmes, Richard Hooper, Mark N. Hopkins, Kate Jones, Flore Michiels, Lucia Murillo, Nicky O Reilly, Angelique Palozzi, Eva Quiroz, Sally Ross, John Schulte, Helen Seery, Derek Skaletsky, Matthew Spiegel, Lauren Beth Strogoff, Narges Takesh, Cheryl A. Tkach, Jeannie Udall, Marcus Agar, Tamsin Anstey, Jeff Caron, James Chasey, Jeff Chena, Phil Clarke, Dave Evans, Steve Fletcher, John D. Genovese, Steve Ginsburg, Richard Gold, Darren Harrison, Nick Hopkins, Ryan R. Johnson, Claire L. Kenny, Deborah Leakey, Jim McKinney, Michael Mendelsohn, Wendy Mooradian, Marc Pattavina, Will Sweeney, Isobel Thomas, Sudi Van Dien, Michael Vasquez, Stuart Walker, Derek Warman, Michelle Wickland, Ed Wiles, Bryan C. Winn

Thanks

Tony Costanzo, Tracey Jacobs, Burns Patterson, Lori Steinberg

Genres

Fantasy, Horror, Mystery

Companies

Paramount Pictures, Mandalay Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions

Countries

USA, Germany, UK

Languages

English, Latin

ContentRating

R

ImDbRating

7.3

ImDb Rating Votes

363132

Metacritic Rating

65

Short Description

Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 gothic supernatural horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely based on Washington Irving s 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow , and stars Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, with Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, Christopher Lee and Jeffrey Jones in supporting roles. The plot follows police constable Ichabod Crane (Depp) sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders in the village of Sleepy Hollow by a mysterious Headless Horseman.

Development began in 1993 at Paramount Pictures, with Kevin Yagher originally set to direct Andrew Kevin Walker s script as a low-budget slasher film. Disagreements with Paramount resulted in Yagher being demoted to prosthetic makeup designer, and Burton was hired to direct in June 1998. Filming took place from November 1998 to May 1999. The film was an international co-production between Germany and the United States.

The film had its world premiere at Mann s Chinese Theatre on November 17, 1999, and was released in the United States on November 19, 1999, by Paramount Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising the performances, direction, screenplay and musical score, as well as its dark humor, visual effects and atmosphere. It grossed approximately $207 million worldwide. Sleepy Hollow won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

Box Office Budget

$100,000,000 (estimated)

Box Office Opening Weekend USA

$30,060,467

Box Office Gross USA

$101,071,502

Box Office Cumulative Worldwide Gross

$206,071,502

Keywords

Headless horseman,horseman,investigation,sword,legend