Sleepy Hollow (film)

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Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy hollow ver2.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Tim Burton
Screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker
Story by
Based on"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
by Washington Irving
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki
Edited by Chris Lebenzon
Music by Danny Elfman
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
Running time
106 minutes [3]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget$70–100 million [6] [7]
Box office$207.1 million [6]

Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 gothic supernatural horror film [8] 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.

Contents

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 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. [9]

Plot

In 1799, New York City police constable Ichabod Crane is dispatched to the upstate Dutch hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, which has been plagued by a series of brutal murders: a wealthy landowner and his son, and a widow. 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 American Revolutionary War who rides a black steed in search of his missing head.

Ichabod begins his investigation, skeptical of the paranormal story. Boarding at the home of Baltus Van Tassel and his wife Mary Van Tassel, he is taken with Baltus's daughter Katrina by Baltus's dead wife Elizabeth. When servant Jonathan Masbath is killed, Ichabod takes Jonathan's son Young Masbath under his wing. They both exhume the victims on a tip from Philipse, learning that the widow died pregnant; Ichabod later witnesses the Horseman kill Philipse shortly after. He, Young Masbath and Katrina venture into the Western Woods, where a crone witch reveals the location of the Horseman's grave at the "Tree of the Dead." Ichabod digs up the Horseman's grave and discovers the skull has been taken, deducing that it has been stolen by someone who now controls him and that the tree is his portal into the living world.

That night, the Horseman slaughters the village midwife and her family, as well as Katrina's suitor Brom when he attempts to intervene. Ichabod deduces that the Horseman is only attacking his targets linked by a conspiracy. He and Masbath visit Hardenbrook, who reveals that the first victim, Peter Van Garrett, had secretly married the widow, writing a new will that left his estate to her and her unborn child instead of his grown-up son Dirk, the second victim. Ichabod deduces that all the victims (except Brom) are 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, a Van Garrett relative.

Upon discovering the accusation, Katrina burns the evidence. Hardenbrook commits suicide and Steenwyck convenes a town meeting to discredit Ichabod, but Baltus bursts into the assembly at the church, announcing that the Horseman has killed his wife. The Horseman arrives at the church as the remaining elders turn on and attack each other. Steenwyck and Lancaster are killed, and the Horseman harpoons Baltus through a window, dragging him out of the church and acquiring his head.

Initially concluding that Katrina was controlling the Horseman, Ichabod later discovers that her diagram, which he believed summoned the Horseman, is actually one of protection and that Lady Van Tassel is actually alive and the real culprit. Katrina gets kidnapped by Lady Van Tassel, who explains her true heritage from an impoverished family evicted years ago by Van Garrett when he favored the Van Tassels instead and that she betrayed the Horseman to his death and stole his skull to control him. She swore revenge against Van Garrett and all who had wronged her, pledging herself to Satan if he would raise the Horseman to avenge her, and also to claim the Van Garrett and Van Tassel estates uncontested. Manipulating her way into the Van Tassel household by murdering Katrina's mother Elizabeth and seducing Baltus to marry her, she used fear, blackmail, and lust to draw the other elders into her plot. Having eliminated all other heirs and witnesses, including her sister (who turns out to be the crone witch who aided Ichabod), Lady Van Tassel summons the Headless Horseman to kill Katrina to secure the fortune for herself.

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

Cast

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 [11] that transformed Ichabod Crane from a schoolmaster from Connecticut to a banished New York City detective. [12] Yagher and Walker subsequently pitched Sleepy Hollow to various studios and production companies, eventually securing a deal with producer Scott Rudin, [11] who had been impressed with Walker's unproduced spec script for Seven . [13] 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. [11] Following the completion of Hellraiser: Bloodline , Yagher had planned Sleepy Hollow as "a low-budget effects showcase with a spectacular murder every five minutes or so," characterized by its screenwriter as a "pretentious slasher movie". [14] Paramount had reservations about the film, interpreting it as a typical period piece—"I wouldn't say they weren't enthusiastic about it, but they didn't see the commercial viability," producer Adam Schroeder noted. "The studio thinks 'old literary classic' and they think The Crucible . There was a fear about that... We started developing it before horror movies came back." [15]

Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing revived studio interest in 1998. [13] Schroeder, who shepherded Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands as a studio executive at 20th Century Fox in 1990, suggested that Burton direct the film. [16] 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. [16] Burton, coming off the troubled production of Superman Lives , was hired to direct in June 1998. [17] Excited about Burton's involvement, Yagher stepped down as director "with good grace", remaining involved in the project as the lead creature effects artist. [15] Burton considered the film his first venture into a primarily horror-focused tone. "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." [11] His interest in directing a horror film was 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. [15] As a result, Sleepy Hollow is an homage to various Hammer Film Productions, including Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde , [18] and other films such as Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , various Roger Corman horror films, [19] Jason and the Argonauts , and Scream Blacula Scream . [13] The image of the Headless Horseman had fascinated Burton during his apprenticeship as a Disney animator at CalArts in the early 1980s. [19] "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." [11] 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. [20] [13]

Casting

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. [15] [21] Depp was cast in July 1998 for his third collaboration with Burton. [22] Depp 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, [23] 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. [13] 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 . [13] "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." [16] 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. [23] 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." [16]

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. [16] 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. [24]

Filming

Supervised by Heinrichs, the town of Sleepy Hollow was constructed around a small duck pond. At a cost estimated at $1.3 million, and over a period of four months, 12 structures were built, several with detailed interiors, as well as exteriors. Sleepy Hollow set.jpg
Supervised by Heinrichs, the town of Sleepy Hollow was constructed around a small duck pond. At a cost estimated at $1.3 million, and over a period of four months, 12 structures were built, several with detailed interiors, as well as exteriors.

The original intention had been to shoot Sleepy Hollow predominantly on location with a $30 million budget. [25] Towns were scouted throughout Upstate New York along the Hudson Valley, [11] and the filmmakers decided on Tarrytown [17] for an October 1998 start date. [22] The Historic Hudson Valley organization assisted in scouting locations, which included the Philipsburg Manor House and forests in the Rockefeller State Park Preserve. [12] "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." [26] 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 United Kingdom. [11]

Rudin believed Britain offered the level of craftsmanship in period detail, painting and costuming that was suitable for the film's design. [27] Having directed Batman entirely in Britain, Burton agreed, and designers from Batman's art department were employed by Paramount for Sleepy Hollow. [16] As a result, principal photography was pushed back [28] to November 20, 1998, at Leavesden Film Studios, which had been recently vacated by Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace . [25] The majority of filming took place at Leavesden, with other work taking place at Shepperton Studios, [11] where the massive Tree of the Dead set was built using Stage H. [13] Production then moved to the Culden Faw Estate, Hambleden [29] for a month-long shoot in March, where the town of Sleepy Hollow was constructed. [11] "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, [11] and a few last minute scenes were shot using a sound stage in Yonkers, New York the following May. [12] [30]

Design

The Tree of the Dead, designed by Keith Short Treeofthedead.jpg
The Tree of the Dead, designed by Keith Short

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. [32] 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 expressionist cinema, Dr. Seuss illustrations, and Hammer's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave . [15]

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. [25]

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 to apply bleach bypass to desaturate the image and increase the color black. [16] 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 [33] and Mexican Luchador films from the 1960s, such as Santo Contra los Zombies and Santo vs. las Mujeres Vampiro . [15] 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. [33]

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." [25] 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." [25]

Visual effects

The majority of Sleepy Hollow's 150 visual effects shots were handled by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), [34] while Kevin Yagher supervised the human and creature effects. Framestore also assisted on digital effects, and The Mill handled motion control photography. [35] 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. [16] Ray Park, who served as the Headless Horseman stunt double, wore a blue ski mask for the chroma key effect, digitally removed by ILM. [20] 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. [32]

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." [36] 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. [36]

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" [27]

Musical score

Sleepy Hollow: Music from the Motion Picture
Soundtrack album by
ReleasedNovember 16, 1999 (1999-11-16)
Length67:52
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

Marketing

To promote Sleepy Hollow, Paramount Pictures featured the film's trailer at San Diego Comic-Con in August 1999. [37] The following October, the studio launched a website, which Variety described as being the "most ambitious online launch of a motion picture to date." [38] 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 [38] from websites such as Ain't It Cool News and Dark Horizons [39] [40] encouraged the studio to create the site. [38] In the weeks pre-dating the release of Sleepy Hollow, a toy line was marketed by McFarlane Toys. [41] Simon & Schuster also published The Art of Sleepy Hollow ( ISBN   0671036572), which included the film's screenplay and an introduction by Tim Burton. [42] A novelization, also published by Simon & Schuster, was written by Peter Lerangis. [43]

Box office

Sleepy Hollow was released in the United States on November 19, 1999, in 3,069 theaters, grossing $30,060,467 in its opening weekend [7] at the No. 2 spot behind The World Is Not Enough . [44] It would drop into fourth place behind the latter film, Toy Story 2 and End of Days the following weekend. [45] 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. [6]

Home media

Paramount Home Video first released Sleepy Hollow on DVD and VHS in the United States on May 23, 2000. [46] The HD DVD release came in July 2006, [47] while the film was released on Blu-ray two years later, in June 2008. [48] 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. [49] For the 20th anniversary, Paramount Home Entertainment released a Blu-ray digibook with a photobook containing the original story on September 24, 2019. [50] For the upcoming 25th anniversary of the film, Paramount Pictures released a remastered 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray version on September 5, 2023. [51]

Reception

Critical response

Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 70% of critics gave Sleepy Hollow 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." [52] 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". [53] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. [54]

Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 stars out of 4 and said: "This is the best-looking horror film since Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula ". He 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." [55] Richard Corliss wrote, in his review for Time , "Burton's richest, prettiest, weirdest [film] since Batman Returns . The simple story bends to his twists, freeing him for an exercise in high style." [56] David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor gave praise to filmmaking and the high-spirited acting of cast, but believed Andrew Kevin Walker's writing was too repetitious and formulaic for the third act. [57]

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." [58] Andrew Johnston of Time Out New York wrote "[l]ike 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." [59] 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." [60]

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." [61]

Accolades

Awards
AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipientsResult
Academy Awards [62] 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 [63] April 9, 2000 Best Production Design Rick HeinrichsWon
Best Costume Design Colleen AtwoodWon
Best Visual Effects Jim Mitchell, Kevin Yagher, Joss Williams, Paddy EasonNominated
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films [64] 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 AtwoodNominated
Best Make-up Kevin Yagher, Peter Owen Nominated
Best Special Effects Jim Mitchell, Kevin Yagher, Joss Williams, Paddy EasonNominated
American Society of Cinematographers [65] February 20, 2000 Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography Emmanuel LubezkiNominated
Art Directors Guild [66] 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 NavarroWon
Awards Circuit Community Awards1999Best Art DirectionRick HeinrichsWon
Best Costume DesignColleen AtwoodWon
Best SoundNominated
Best Visual EffectsNominated
BMI Film & Television Awards December 8, 2014 BMI Film Music Award Danny ElfmanWon
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards [67] May 9, 2000Favorite Actor – HorrorJohnny DeppWon
Favorite Actress – HorrorChristina RicciWon
Favorite Supporting Actress – HorrorMiranda RichardsonWon
Favorite Supporting Actor – Horror Marc Pickering Nominated
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards [68] December 12, 1999 Best Cinematography Emmanuel LubezkiWon
Chicago Film Critics Association [69] March 13, 2000 Best Cinematography Nominated
Costume Designers Guild [70] February 25, 2000 Excellence in Period/Fantasy Costume Design for Film Colleen AtwoodWon
Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards [71] March 19, 2000 Best Character Makeup – FeatureKevin Yagher, Peter Owen, Liz Tagg, Paul GoochWon
International Film Music Critics Association [72] 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 [73] February 4, 1999 Film Score of the Year Danny ElfmanNominated
International Horror Guild [74] May 12, 2000 Best FilmNominated
Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists [75] May 12, 2000 Best Foreign DirectorTim BurtonNominated
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards [76] January 18, 2000Best ScoreDanny ElfmanNominated
Best CinematographyEmmanuel LubezkiNominated
Best Costume DesignColleen AtwoodNominated
Best Production DesignRick HeinrichsWon
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards [77] December 12, 1999 Won
MTV Movie Awards [78] June 5, 2000 Best Villain Christopher WalkenNominated
Motion Picture Sound Editors [79] 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 FearingNominated
National Society of Film Critics [80] January 8, 2000 Best Cinematography Emmanuel LubezkiNominated
New York Film Critics Circle Awards [81] January 9, 2000 Best Cinematographer Runner-up
Online Film & Television Association [82] January 12, 2000Best Original ScoreDanny ElfmanNominated
Best CinematographyEmmanuel LubezkiNominated
Best Production DesignRick Heinrichs, Ken Court, John Dexter, Andy Nicholson, Kevin Phipps, Leslie Tomkins, Peter YoungWon
Best Costume DesignColleen AtwoodNominated
Best Makeup and HairstylingKevin Yagher, Peter Owen, Liz Tagg, Paul Gooch, Susan Parkinson, Bernadette Mazur, Tamsin DorlingNominated
Best Sound MixingLee Dichter, Robert Fernandez, Skip Lievsay, Frank Morrone Nominated
Best Sound EffectsSkip LievsayNominated
Best Visual EffectsJames Mitchell, Kevin Yagher, Joss Williams, Paddy EasonNominated
Best Official Film Websitewww.sleepyhollow.comNominated
Online Film Critics Society [83] January 2, 2000 Best CinematographyEmmanuel LubezkiWon
Santa Fe Film Critics Circle Awards [84] January 9, 2000Won
Satellite Awards [85] January 16, 2000 Best Actor – Musical or Comedy Johnny DeppNominated
Best Original Score Danny ElfmanWon
Best Cinematography Emmanuel LubezkiWon
Best Art Direction Ken Court, John Dexter, Rick Heinrichs and Andy NicholsonWon
Best Costume Design Colleen AtwoodWon
Best Editing Chris Lebenzon Nominated
Best Sound Gary Alpers, Skip Lievsay, Frank MorroneWon
Best Visual Effects Jim Mitchell, Joss WilliamsNominated
Teen Choice Awards [86] August 6, 2000 Film – Choice ActressChristina RicciNominated
Young Artist Award [87] March 19, 2000 Best Performance in a Feature Film: Leading Young Actress Nominated

Reboot

On June 10, 2022, Paramount announced plans for a reboot of Sleepy Hollow with Lindsey Beer in talks to write and direct it. [88]

See also

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<i>The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad</i> 1949 animated Disney film

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a 1949 American animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It consists of two segments: the first based on Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's novel The Wind in the Willows and narrated by Basil Rathbone, and the second based on Washington Irving's 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and narrated by Bing Crosby. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen, and was directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, and James Algar.

Historic Hudson Valley is a not-for-profit educational and historic preservation organization headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. The organization runs tours and events at five historic properties in Westchester County, in the lower Hudson River Valley.

Richard Joseph Cardamone was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Headless Horseman</span> Mythical figure

The Headless Horseman is an archetype of mythical figure that has appeared in folklore around Europe since the Middle Ages. The figures are traditionally depicted as riders upon horseback who are missing their heads. These myths have since inspired a number of stories and characters in popular culture, including "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

<i>Sleepy Hollow</i> (TV series) American supernatural drama television series

Sleepy Hollow is an American supernatural drama television series that aired on Fox from September 16, 2013, to March 31, 2017. The series is loosely based on the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", by Washington Irving, with added concepts from "Rip Van Winkle", also by Irving. The first three seasons are set in a fictionalized version of Sleepy Hollow, New York, which portrays the town as much larger than it actually is. For the fourth and final season, the setting moved to Washington, D.C.

<i>The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane</i> 1858 painting by John Quidor

The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane (1858) is a painting by American artist John Quidor, depicting a scene from Washington Irving's 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

<i>The Legend of Sleepy Hollow</i> (1980 film) 1980 American TV series or program

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a 1980 American made-for-television film produced by Sunn Classic Pictures as a part of their Classics Illustrated series. It was filmed partly in Park City, Utah and shown on NBC. It starred Jeff Goldblum as Ichabod Crane, Meg Foster as Katrina von Tassel, and Dick Butkus as Brom Bones. It was directed by Henning Schellerup and produced by Charles Sellier, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on the movie.

<i>The Headless Horseman</i> (1922 film) 1922 film

The Headless Horseman is a 1922 American silent film adaptation of Washington Irving's 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" directed by Edward D. Venturini. It stars Will Rogers, Lois Meredith and Ben Hendricks Jr. It was the first panchromatic black-and-white feature film.

<i>Sleepy Hollow</i> season 3 Season of television series

The third season of the Fox television series Sleepy Hollow premiered on October 1, 2015, and consisted of 18 episodes. This season it moved time slots to Thursdays at 9:00 pm. On February 5, 2016, the show premiered in its new timeslot of Friday at 8:00 pm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse Merwin</span>

Jesse Merwin, called the "pattern" or "original" of Ichabod Crane, was a rural schoolmaster in Upstate New York, and a friend of Martin Van Buren and Washington Irving. He taught school at a single-room schoolhouse in Columbia County, New York.

The Headless Horseman is a 1934 animated short film directed by Ub Iwerks and part of the ComiColor cartoon series. It is based on the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.

<i>Hollow</i> (graphic novel) 2022 graphic novel

Hollow is a 2022 young adult graphic novel by Shannon Waters and Branden Boyer-White based on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". The graphic novel was illustrated by Berenice Nelle.

Sleepy Hollow High School (SHHS) is a high school located in Sleepy Hollow, Westchester County, New York. It is part of the Union Free School District of Tarrytowns. The mascot is the Headless Horseman. It is consistently ranked in the top 5-10% of high schools in New York State. Its diverse student body is reflective of the village's wide array of cultures, socioeconomics, and inclusiveness and is often recognized for excellence in this regard.

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Further reading