Directed by Tim Burton / Screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker

Not all fantasy cinema harks back to ancient European folklore; just as potent are the American Gothic imaginations of authors like Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe. Tim Burton’s full-blooded adaptation of Irving’s 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow began life as the brainchild of make-up artist turned director Kevin Yagher and screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, who had made his name as the author of 1995’s pitch-dark crime thriller Seven. When Tim Burton expressed an interest in directing, Yagher graciously stepped aside, but remained on board as make-up effects designer. Uncredited rewrites were carried out by Burton and playwright Tom Stoppard, fresh from his success with Shakespeare in Love. Keen to evoke an atmosphere harking back to the golden days of Universal and Hammer horror, and the better to reflect the tale’s eighteenth-century colonial setting, Burton assembled a cast of actors from both sides of the Atlantic: familiar British faces include Christopher Lee, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Ian McDiarmid and Michael Gough. Heading the cast is Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane, the eccentric New York City constable sent to investigate a series of brutal murders in the remote upstate hamlet of Sleepy Hollow. The locals believe the killer to be the ghostly apparition of a headless horseman, buried beneath a twisted tree, who rides by night in search of his missing head. Initially sceptical, Ichabod is forced to reconsider when further heads begin to roll. Bristling with gallows humour, enjoyable shocks and ravishing visuals (it won the Oscar for Best Art Direction), Sleepy Hollow showcases the Tim Burton magic at its very best.

Framed Dimensions: 315mm x 400mm

Charcoal and soft pastel on 220gsm Daler Rowney smooth paper
Glazed, mounted and framed

Supplied with signed letter of authenticity from Barnaby.