Ok folks, Harry Here. Well after that last description of the sets at Shepperton... well, I just started going nuts dying to see some of the look and style of this film, as well as casting for the movie. So I started flipping through my Book of Spies, and came across a P.I. recommended by my friend Roger. Eddie Valiant was his name. He was a lush back around the time MAROON CARTOONS went out of business, now... He’s just a two-bit P.I. in a wheelchair. All his looney friends were imprisoned by Ted Turner and well... He’s pretty darn lonely. I told Eddie, “Eddie, you’re pathetic... you used to be beautiful, you were the best of em, now we’re calling upon you for a great mission. You must get photographs of.... SLEEPY HOLLOW. Here’s the rundown of his report..
“Listen up, I’m only gonna say this once ya fat bastard. I got your damn pictures, but you sit still for the whole damn report. You got that? Good. First things first. You didn’t tell me you wanted pictures from SLEEPY HOLLOW the movie, so I had a little misadventure at first.”
“I called up an ol pal of mine, he’s a short little fella, friend of Brando’s. His name is Mini-Me. He told me how to get to this place called Sleepy Hollow outside of New York. So, beings that was the job, I wheeled myself on over to the L.A. International Airport, and hopped the clipper for the Big Apple.”
“If you are ever even in that sleepless burg my friend, Sleepy Hollow is a must for ya. It’s about 30 minutes north of Manhattan. No, it’s not Burton's set, but the actual town of Sleepy Hollow, where Washington Irving wrote his scary tale of Ichabod Crane. It looks exactly like you imagine it. The cemetary is incredibly spooky, and the forests (actually Rockefeller State Park) is beautiful in spring and autumn, but downright spooky now that the leaves have all fallen. Walking along the trails, you think you can hear the Headless Horseman coming for you. While you won't learn anything interesting about the movie, it's a great day-trip to get yourself psyched for the film.
To get there, just take the Metro North from Manhattan to Tarrytown ($5.50 one-way). It’s nowhere near as great as the greatest public transportation on the planet back in L.A. but hey, what’s a poor sap like me gonna do? At the station, find a cab to take you to Rockefeller State Park (about 6 dollar cab-ride). They'll know the way. Watch as you drive through the town, and eventually you come to the cemetary just outside the forest. It's creepy. For an added bonus, bring a copy of the book, and read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow while you sit in the forest.
Incidentally, the town itself is kinda silly small-town. The restaurants, newspapers, and even the police cars all have pictures of the headless horseman on them. I took a few snaps of some of this sort of thing, when this little punk kid asks me, what I’m doing. I look the little pip-squeek right smack dab in the eye and tell him I’m getting pics for AICN. He laughs, “Geez mister, Harry wants pictures from the MOVIE, not our town.” After a little roughing up the little brat finally broke down and told me everything he knew about the film. And said that I needed to hop a steel bird to the City of Angels and poke around the production office, till I found the pics I was looking for.
Well, getting on the Paramount lot ain’t no big accomplishment, their security guards only have the attention to throw you out the first three times ya get in... after that they just think you belong. I managed to find Scott Rudin’s production office address and decided to pay him a visit. Cute gal at the front office, a little flirting from a toothless canary like myself got her to spill the nuts and bolts of this here project.
Here's a rundown of the cast. The three main actors are well known by now, but the casting of the Horseman really suprises me.
Ichabod Crane - Johnny Depp
Katrina Van Tassel - Christina Ricci
Brom Van Brunt - Casper Van Dien
Baltus Van Tassel - Michael Gambon
Lady Van Tassel - Lisa Marie
Old Crone - Miranda Richardson
Steenwyck - Jeffrey Jones
Phillipse - Richard Griffiths
Doc Lancaster - Ian McDiarmid
Hardenbrook - Michael Gough
Killian - Steven Waddington
and...
wait for it...
The Headless Horseman - Christopher Walken
I was going to get you a whole stick of gum for Christmas, but I thought you might like these instead. Here is the first of several production sketches from Sleepy Hollow. I'll try and describe them to the best of my ability.
This first one is our hero, Ichabod Crane, wearing some sort of headlight device. I'm not sure if this will be used in the final production, but it IS neat looking.
While thumbing through my script for an explanation of this next picture, I figured out what that last one was. Those were Ichabod's "Magnification Spectacles."
This picture here is of a decorative tin lantern. It's designed so that the shadows of the animal carvings are cast all around it. I know it's in the script, but I can't find it just now. I believe it belongs to Young Masbath.
This is one of my favorite sketches. This the Headless Horseman's trio of weapons: a saber for dueling, a dagger for close contact, and his ever- impressive axe for claiming the heads of his victims. Yowsa!
The first of the location sketches is the Van Tassel's home. Even though it's kind of a safehaven from the Horseman, it still looks pretty creepy.
Ok. My computer just crashed, so I'm not sure if you got that last picture of the Van Tassel's home. Let's assume you did, and move on.
This next picture is of the windmill. Notice the little, tiny Headless Horseman in the lower left-hand corner. Cute, isn't he?
Oh, , while I was waiting for my computer to reboot, I found that lantern in the script. It belongs to young Thomas Killian. (page 55 in my script)
Here is the last sketch I'm sending you, and I think I've saved the best for last. This is kind of a location shot, and kind of an event shot. This is from the flashback sequence, showing the Hessian Horseman kicking ass, back when he was alive. This reminds me of the scene in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" when Vlad Tepes is tearing his way across the battlefield.
Eddie Valiant
