Johnny Depp as Bats? I dont know what to think about that.
But, I'll tell you what I do think. Depp and Burton need to end their little love fest and go their seperate ways. Sure, most of what they have made has been pretty okay, but I'd rather see Burton do his own s*** rather than writing roles just for Depp. And I would like to see Depp do his own stuff.
Burton has done his own stuff in between. Since he met Depp he's also made Mars Attacks, Nightmare Before Christmas, Planet of the Apes and Batman Returns, Big Fish, that's 5/6.
As far as I'm concerned his batting percentage with Depp (5 for 5 out of the movies I've seen) trumps his betting percentage without (2 for 5 since they met, 4 for 7 overall).
And since meeting Burton, Depp has made: The Pirates Franchise, The Libertine, Finding Neverland, Secret Window, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, From Hell, Blow, Chocolat, Before Night Falls, The Man Who Cried, The Astronaut's Wife, The Ninth Gate, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brave, Donnie Brasco, Nick of Time, Dead Man, Don Juan DeMarco, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Benny and Joon, and Arizona Dream.
Now I'm not going to argue about the quality here as its much harder for actors to stay in consistently good movies, but he's certainly getting his work in.
Some directors just work better with certain stars. Look at Martin Scorsese who used Robert De Niro countless times over and has now used Leo DiCaprio in 3 straight films and is attached to his next two. Alfred Hitchcock used certain actors repeatedly. P T Anderson had half of his casts identical in his first two films. Wes Anderson uses the same main cast members repeatedly (although the quality of his films have been, in my opinion, in decline). Mel Brooks combined with Gene Wilder for Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and the Producers, Christopher Guest's mockumentaries use the same players in every one, and Robert Zemeckis has combined with Tom Hanks repeatedly over the latter course of their careers.
Simply put some directors work best with some actors, and as far as I'm concerned, Burton hasn't exactly been limiting his artistic vision by casting Depp. He's had him as a quiet, naive, Edward Scissorhands, the extravagant, over-confident, transvestite director Ed Wood, the nervous, skeptical scientist in Sleepy Hollow, as a wacky, fun loving, mysterious candy maker in Charlie, as the voice of a claymation character, and as a men hell bent on revenge without an ounce of sympathy in his body. Burton might be stuck on one note visually in most of his films (which I would argue isn't necessarily true) but to say that he and Depp have been stagnating artistically by combining themselves is just foolish in my mind.
