September 9, 2016
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Director Tim Burton sank his hands and feet into the cement at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Thursday, marking a genre-bending resume which has straddled stop-motion, action fantasy and ghoulish horror.
The 58-year-old was recognized for a career spanning three decades which has seen him Oscar-nominated for animated features "Corpse Bride" and "Frankenweenie" and garlanded with numerous other awards for his ecletic ouevre.
"I never thought I'd actually get to attend my own funeral, it's amazing. I hope it's this good," the dishevelled filmmaker joked in the briefest of acceptance speeches.
Burton was introduced by long-time friend and collaborator Winona Ryder, 44, who said she couldn't think of "two more blessed and treasured hands to be submerged in cement."
"Tim understands the human heart in a way I have never seen, certainly on screen," added Ryder, who starred in Burton's "Beetlejuice" and "Edward Scissorhands," as well as lending her voice to "Frankenweenie".
"He knows the pain of the misunderstood, the odd and even of the mad and he celebrates them in a way that is totally unique, so very, very tender and, sometimes terrifying and very often hilarious."
Burton is acclaimed for his artistic -- sometimes colorful and sometimes dark -- directing style on films ranging from "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" to "Batman" and "Ed Wood."
But he has not been above criticism, with "Mars Attacks!" the big-budget "Planet of the Apes," the "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" remake and the creepy "Dark Shadows" all the target of widespread derision.
The ceremony came ahead of the planned September 30 release of his next film, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children."
