Oh Tim Burton, what has happened to you? You jumped into the bizarre with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, you re-imagined the Dark Knight in Batman, and you brought out the ultra-strange with both Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, then you fell off the wagon. Falling into a world of obvious with Alice in Wonderland, Burton appears to be less and less inspired, which is why it comes as no shock that he’s developing a remake — err reimagining of the 1986 version of Little Shop of Horrors (not the original 1960 film). More giant alien plant talk inside.

Collaboration is one thing, but it’s time to get a doctor to separate these two. Bloody Disgusting has learned that Tim Burton is currently prepping a remake of Little Shop of Horrors, with Johnny Depp taking on the role of the nerdy Seymour.

The pairing of these two is becoming intensely tiring as they’ve worked together on everything ranging from Edward Scissorhands to the more recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland.

What’s so incredibly frustrating is that this is yet another film I’d say is an “obvious” choice for Burton. The fact that he took Charlie to the chocolate factory was cute, but make the odd Alice even more “Burton-Odd” is just lazy. Where’s your imagination dude?

Even worse is that after the success of Alice, you’ve got Burton developing more obvious genre pics including Disney’s Maleficent, Dark Shadows, and even Addams Family.

The one (sort of) new thing Burton is doing here is shooting the film entirely in motion capture, not unlike the process Robert Zemeckis used for his 2004 horror film Polar Express, in which Tom Hanks played every role, each one creepier than the last. Naturally, this will allow Burton to cast Depp in nearly every role in his Shop – in addition to Seymour, Depp will portray the Dentist, the sadomasochist patient (played by Bill Murray in the 1986 film), Mr. Mushnik, as well as the voice of Audrey II. Helena Bonham Carter will be the only other cast member, playing the real Audrey.

Burton explains, “I think I have made it clear that I only want to work with Johnny Depp and my wife for the rest of my life, so doing it all mo-cap is perfect as it negates the usual necessity to hire other, unwanted actors.”

The only other new element with this project is that he’ll be walking in the steps of William Castle as he plans on releasing this in 4-D (apparently he was inspired by Honey I Blew Up the Audience) as the audience will smell plants, get hit with water and even have air blown on their necks so it feels like the plant is wrapping around them.

But the truly disgusting news is that he’s simultaneously prepping Little Shop and a feature film adaptation of the board game Candyland, another super obvious choice. All we know about Candyland is that he’s planning on building a life-sized set made solely of real candy, which will later be rendered into CGI. All of this comes in lieu of last week’s rumors that his long-stewing HOT TOPIC: The Movie is being put on hold due to a ballooning 300 million dollar budget. But seriously, he will make all of these movies. Mark my words. No “joke” about it. – Mr. Disgusting/BC